Bringing Her Home
by CaliAngel89
Summary: On the day of Alex's release, Piper and Alex reflect on how they got from their devastating breakup to this celebratory moment and being stronger than ever both individually and as a couple. Follows the 24 hours from waking up in their separate spaces on Alex's release day to waking up as a couple for the first time. Prequel for Domestic Vauseman sequel. OOC
1. Prologue: The Rest is Just Background

**A/N: This story has a non linear timeline and flashes between past and present to fill in the gaps between Alex sobbing in her cell, Piper leaving Larry and Polly's apartment and the scene where she's driving to Columbus and a fly on the wall narrator who is able to see into Piper and Alex's separate worlds simultaneously. I hope it's not too confusing to follow but there will be rewards for following this crazy story...it sets up a sequel that is pure domestic Vauseman at its finest with an unpredictable twist (different narrator but similar play with time). This story is complete but the sequel will be a bit slower going because it is a different universe from my other story. So buckle up and enjoy the crazy ride.**

The phone rang twice as Piper struggled to hold it in her shaky, sweaty palm. She wanted to hang up and just accept that this was her life and she had no power to change it. Then she thought back to the meetings with her intro to law professor and her new friend, Mia, from the yoga studio she had started going to regularly and the nerve-wracking meeting with a still very much grieving father who could get sympathy and respect she never could as the wife of a convicted drug dealer and former co-conspirator. This was the last piece she needed, assuming the phone rang twice as Piper struggled to hold it in her shaky, sweaty palm. She wanted to hang up and just accept that this was her life and she had no power to change it. Then she thought back to the meetings with her intro to law professor and her new friend, Mia, from the yoga studio she had started going to regularly and the nerve-wracking meeting with a still very much grieving father and a woman who could reach him in a way she never could. This was the last piece she needed, assuming the person attached to the number she dialed even saw anything that night. She knew it wouldn't be the end of what she was trying to do if she hadn't but it would make things harder if she hadn't seen anything or was too angry to help her. She didn't deserve it but she hoped she'd get it anyway. Because if she had seen something, it would lend a lot of legitimacy to the last straw for Piper when it came to the abuse she had seen and experienced by psychologically unhealthy guards. Just as she took the phone from her ear and went to hang up the phone, she heard it stop ringing and silence on the other end of the line.

"Hey! Hi! You picked up, I really didn't think you would."

"I told you six months ago when you told me you weren't going to Northampton, that you weren't ready to give up on Alex yet and you were driving through Pennsylvania that I understood and would always be there for you. I really care about you, Piper. I want to see you happy and whether it's with me or Alex I just want you to follow your heart. Is everything okay in Ohio? Cause if your family cut you off and you need money I'll send it without question. Even if you spend it on her. I assume you are still with her?"

"Yeah, we're doing better than ever. We decided to go for a clean slate and start from the beginning again but we still wear our rings and consider ourselves married because that love is still there. We still feel the same deep connection that led me to ask to be her wife in the first place. The Ohio prison is better all around and I get to hold my wife's hand and touch her. She's taking bookkeeping classes and it's not as violent and corrupt as Litchfield. It's still prison but it's more forward-thinking and into preventing recidivism. Ohio ended up being the best thing that could have happened to us. I'm going to night school to become a paralegal and working at Starbucks. My parents and Neri aren't exactly thrilled at my move but they are starting to come around. I went back to Connecticut for the weekend and they saw how happy and enthusiastic about life I was. Cal secretly supports me but he would never let my parents or his wife know and I'd never ask him too. He couldn't handle that rejection, he's not as strong as me."

"So why are you calling then? I'm happy to hear from you, just it doesn't make sense."

"I'm trying to put a class action lawsuit together against the federal prison system for hiring psychologically unfit guards and their treatment of queer and trans female inmates. I'm asking for unspecified damages but really I just want them to stop hiring guards who could never make it through the screening process to be a cop. I'm not asking for the foxes to stop guarding the henhouse, I'm just saying trauma and abuse survivors deserve better. I don't want money, nobody in the case wants money we just want better psychological testing. And I want my wife released, she's been nearly killed by three guards and then there's the whole thing with another guard. And that's where you come in. Alex had an affair with a guard with severe PTSD and generally unbalanced who stalked me when Alex broke it off. Remember that night you walked me home after the gala?"

"Yeah. It felt like someone was waiting outside and then following us but I couldn't see anyone threatening. That's why I was so insistent on escorting you home, something didn't feel right. Was she following us that night?"

"Yeah. She tried to push her way into the house. It was fucked up and scary but I know it's the word of a felon against a prison guard unless I can prove that I was stalked on an otherwise empty street."

"What do I need to do?"

"Sign a witness statement to what you saw that night. The stalking of all things is the linchpin of my case, the proof that their lack of proper screening is putting the lives of people outside the prison at risk."

"Just send me the information about where you need it sent. And call me once in a while if you can, I understand if Alex isn't okay with it but I worry about you sometimes."

"I don't think that's a good idea. I know how we both are, it's hard enough for us to maintain a relationship with Nicky. We can't do it for two people, Nicky is like a sister to me and she's Alex's best friend so it's worth trying. You were and will always be what could have been in another life where an ordinary life could ever satisfy me. Alex makes me special and I love her. I don't know how not to love her and I've given up trying and so has she. But I'll let you know how the case goes."

"I understand. I'd like to at least know that much."

Two months later Piper called Zelda again after her shift at Starbucks and study group, "I have news. The government doesn't want this case to ever be known publicly, let alone reach the Supreme Court and they figured out who the lead plaintiffs are and have offered to release Alex and look into their hiring practices, which I know is bullshit but the other plaintiffs are all fine with it, for whatever reason that I'm not willing to question. Alex asked for her passport and the bank account of her choice to be unfrozen upon her release. And they agreed to it, they'll give us anything if we go away quietly. We would have to sign an extremely strict NDA, which would preclude us basically from ever speaking in anything that could be construed as publicly about our experiences during our incarceration. I could make a difference at home or in the world but I'll never be able to do both."

"You can make a difference through helping others, you don't have to write a book or speak at a rally, let other people do that. I know what it is to be a married social justice advocate and when things were good there's nothing I would have chosen over my wife. You are no good to any greater goals if your house is in disarray. You need to get her out of there. That's the change you have the power to make and the one most likely to be made. The one most likely to have a long-lasting effect. You two need to start your lives together as free women and you deserve it."

"I think I've just heard one too many times that if anyone is going to win this it would be someone like me and we both know what they mean."

"But for one thing, you love Alex and that love has made you do some crazy things. Bring her home, live a quiet, anonymous peaceful life away from everything. You don't know the gift you are being given. Believe me, after my last project I'm wishing I never got involved in professional activism. Just be Alex and Piper, the girls next door who happen to have found each other and fallen in love. The rest is just background."

"I said that once about me and her and the time we spent with the ring. I'm scared we aren't capable of being normal. We weren't built for quiet normalcy."

"Normal doesn't mean being plain and boring. You still get to live boldly and love passionately. Open existence with your partner and showing how ordinary we are is the boldest thing you can do as a queer person. Bring her home while that's still a guaranteed option."

As Piper flung her phone on the lavender comforter she knew Zelda had served any purpose she ever could have had in her life. Without hesitation, she picked her phone back up and blocked the red head's number without any emotion either way and then called the mediator back and accepted the deal. As she hung up, she felt more sadness than she thought she would at giving up any chance to share her experience of incarceration with the world. She hoped she would find another, quieter way to make a lasting difference in the world and for LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system.

Piper and Alex waited for nearly two weeks before she got a release date and when she did, she was given twelve hours notice of her release. Piper had just enough time to scramble and get her shift covered and send a quick email to her professor to tell her she wouldn't be in class before attempting to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be the biggest day of her life, the day that had come sooner than she ever could have imagined and she never thought would; she was bringing her home. She programmed a quick reminder alarm into her phone, fearing she'd forget or sleep through the scheduled release and Alex would be dropped in an unfamiliar city trying to get to an apartment she'd never been to in a not so great part of the city because she didn't show up on time.


	2. Wives are the Worst

Piper shuffled through her dark apartment on the northeastern edge of town that always seemed like a palace when she attempted to traverse it in the dark. She groggily grabbed her running clothes out of instinct before her iPhone dinged, echoing loudly in the quiet of the lonesome space, and the sudden brightness burned her retinas.

_Finally bringing her home_

As she stared at the warm glare of her phone, she remembered that she wasn't up at four am for her morning run, no she was heading to the prison just outside town to finally bring the love of her life home. She had maybe gotten fifteen minutes of sleep yet she felt so energized as she went from a reluctant zombie to skipping around her apartment like a little girl on the first warm day of spring. Because, in many ways, today was exactly that. Alex was coming home. Alex would be safe. Alex would make it out of prison alive. Tomorrow their life together started anew. They had managed to survive the long, harsh winter and borne the days where the universe couldn't quite decide between the darkness and rain and brightness and cloudless sunshine. After a long period of deliberation, today it had ruled in their favor. They were going to make it and had been sentenced to a lifetime of pain and beauty fish. A life of living and loving boldly and on their terms. They had never truly been free. Before prison, they had existed at the expense of staying in Kubra's good graces and she had been closeted. Then they had prison where the guards called all the shots and they had to learn to win the rat maze created by the American criminal justice system. Finally, they had to find a way to survive the hardest challenge yet and they didn't always do the right thing in any sense of the word but here she was, about to bring her fiancé home.

It still seemed like yesterday she packed what little she owned into a tiny blue rented Volt and headed out alone for a drive through the two states and five hundred forty miles separating her from the woman she wasn't ready to let go of so easily. As she shuffled the few steps to the tiny cracked pedestal sink and started the weak stream of lukewarm water from the hot tap, she recalled that day.

_She came back to Cal's apartment from Larry's place and instantly started throwing things into two boxes and others into a trash bag as she blasted angry rock music through her earbuds._

_"Piper! Piper!"_

_She didn't turn around as her brother yelled her name, she just stayed in her zone until he walked up to her and refused to let her ignore him._

_"What!?"_

_"What are you doing?"_

_"What does it look like?"_

_"Packing. Are you okay? What's happened to you over the past few days? You stayed out all night and then visited Alex and came back looking worse than dead and now you are slamming things around."_

_"What do you think?"_

_"No. No, you aren't. You just took off, where did you go?"_

_"For a walk. I ended up knocking on the door of my old apartment with Larry and he was there and said some things I didn't want to believe but I know he was right. He told me to go do what new Piper would do and that's what I'm doing."_

_"From Queens to Brooklyn? You really lost that much time? No, don't answer that. It doesn't matter. That's the past and you don't seem to be there any longer. So, what exactly is new Piper doing?"_

_"Moving to Ohio."_

_"Why? Of all the places in the world, you could choose why that god-awful place?"_

_"Because Alex fucked up and got herself sent there. Don't judge me or tell me why I should give up on her and not try to forgive her. When you've been with someone where everyone and everything is trying to keep you apart and loved someone for over a decade then you get an opinion. But I hope you never have to go through a tenth of what I've been through because I love Alex."_

_"And if she doesn't want to see you?"_

_"Then I die trying. Alex doesn't get to let her fears win out. I don't want to be free from her. And even if that were a realistic option, I know she doesn't actually want that. I'm not letting her push me away and I'm not leaving. She's used to being left. She wasn't even born yet the first time somebody abandoned her. Hell, she barely had a heartbeat. She learned to cut her losses and never get attached. Then I came along. And I know she'll break down and give in to me eventually, she always does. She says never again, I push and flirt and next thing I know I'm between her legs."_

_"Okay, don't, stop. I would like to still watch lesbian porn once in a while and if you then I then I can't and I watch porn for the girls."_

_"So do I."_

_"Piper, stop. I have a wife who won't sleep with me. Don't take the one shred of sexual fulfillment I have left. Okay, you're chasing Alex and I'm not stopping you. But what about Zelda?"_

_"I like her and sure over time I know I could love her and be happy with her in an alternate universe where even a normal lesbian relationship would be enough for me. She's rich and hot and is in love with me. She's sweet and successful-"_

_"Let me guess where you're going, but she's not Alex. So, do you have an actual plan or are you just going on inertia and hope alone?"_

_"Little of both. I rented a car and am going to try to make it as far into Pennsylvania as I can tonight then stop and sleep for the night. Hopefully, tomorrow night I'll arrive in Ohio but definitely by the morning after next. I'll find a cheap hotel that rents by the month and get a job then go talk myself into a federal prison by any means necessary."_

_"Don't get yourself arrested, Piper."_

_"I hope it won't come to that but I have to do this. She's a part of me. She's been a part of me since I was twenty fucking two years old."_

_"She's your first love, isn't she?"_

_"Yeah, the first real one anyway. That only makes something that was already going to be intense that much more so. I know I've done some fucked up shit and didn't always show it like I should have but losing her would be like losing a limb. I could learn to adapt but those phantom pains would always be there. I could never be fair to another human being. If I choose Zelda then I'm repeating the same pattern just with a woman instead of a man and I've seen where that ends up. And for as much pain as I caused Larry, I caused myself more. He's happy with a wife and sons but there was a time where he was alone and in pain. She's met him but I don't think she sees that this can only lead one place."_

_"Yeah because she didn't see the anger and devastation. He was messed up when you fucked Alex and told him you loved her. I'll never forget him showing up at my trailer like a whipped puppy. Dude, wrong place to go for sympathy when my sister fucks you over. Not a good time to act like I didn't warn him before I even knew the reason for your behavior in relationships since you moved to New York. He's moved on and is doing well now two years later but back then he was so broken-hearted."_

_"Dad likes Zelda."_

_"Of course. If dad were going to pick a girl for you to marry it would be someone like her, someone on your level. But that isn't you."_

_"I wish it were."_

_"No, you don't, stop lying to yourself. Stop trying to please everybody else all the time."_

_"Will he come around?"_

_"Your family will always love you. We aren't going anywhere. If chasing Alex to Ohio of all god-awful places is what you have to do then go. There must be something special about her if you are willing to go to prison for her and move to another state where you don't know anybody, don't have a job or place to live. If this is what you truly believe must do then I'm not going to stop you. I don't like it or agree but I'm your blood and I will always support you, even if it means putting my feelings aside. You can always come back if it doesn't work out."_

_"Thanks."_

_Cal reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet and handed Piper a wad of bills of various denominations, "Take this for the journey. It's not much but hopefully, it'll keep you from running out of gas, going hungry or sleeping in the car. Be careful on rural roads and about where you stop."_

_"I know."_

_"Don't tell Neri I gave you that, she'd kill me or at least make sure I never have sex again. And I almost have her convinced to at least give me some satisfaction."_

_"Yeah, wives are the worst, aren't they?"_

_"Funny. So, the people who say gay people are fighting for the right to be miserable like the rest of us are right, then? At least you don't have to worry about getting yours pregnant and having another human being take over the woman you love."_

_"Well, I'm feeling pretty miserable right now. Believe me, if you knew everything, my wife would suck more. I knew she was an asshole who did everything she could to put forth this image of a powerful woman she, in_

_reality, is the antithesis of. She has no confidence. She thinks she's unworthy of love and that nobody would ever choose to love her, only to leave her. Marriage sucks, women suck and they'll make you crazy but God, they are amazing creatures, especially mine. She's gorgeous and has taught me so much. I just wish she could see the woman I see. I wish she could love herself and believe that she is worthy of love and good things. Why do we always torpedo shit just as it's getting good?"_

_"Because that problem you just put on Alex isn't just hers, it's yours too. It's easier for you to run and you are good at it."_

_"Am I just running again?"_

_"No, you are chasing. You are choosing to take a risk and be bold without any guarantees. How were you planning to get from here to your rental car?"_

_"Not sure."_

_"I'll give you a ride but we have to leave before Neri and the baby get home," Cal pulled a sobbing Piper into his arms and held her there for a moment. When he let her go, she looked around the room and made sure she had everything. Cal could see his sister was feeling shaky so he lightened the mood with some brotherly teasing, "Don't forget your vibrator. God, I'll be glad when both of you are out of this house."_

_"Do you want me to remind you of how living with a pubescent Cal Chapman was? I was glad to leave for college so I wouldn't have to see the evidence of you whacking off all the time and discovering girls."_

_"Not that you minded when I started bringing Playboys home."_

_"You've seen my wife. Well, pictures anyway but I've never seen a picture that did full justice to her assets. I like hot tits. So of course, I didn't mind seeing pictures of lingerie-clad or even topless big breasted women. Still, don't, just nobody else's are as hot as my wife's and thus not worth waking the green-eyed demon that is a jealous Alex Vause. So yeah, I took full advantage of being a fifteen-year-old queer girl whose twelve-year-old brother just discovered porn and tits and the effect that body part has on those who are attracted to women. Straight chicks aren't checking out man-nipples and comparing them to other dudes, that's for sure, I lived amongst them when all I wanted was to find girls who understood me. I knew the effect tits had on me for a couple of years because track meets, hotels and locker rooms are things. I thought I could keep it locked away. I made out with girls in high school and college when I was drunk but swore it didn't mean anything other than I had one too many because I knew I liked boys. But girls had an undeniable effect on me. Nobody told me you could like both. Then I fell in love with Alex and the feelings I had were indisputable and like nothing I had ever felt before or since."_

_"I'm glad she gave you what you needed to be comfortable with being open about all of you. You're pretty awesome as far as felonious, narcissistic big sisters go. You ready?"_

_"Yeah and you aren't bad as far as slacker, stoner little brothers go. Let's go. Help me carry one of the boxes?"_

_"What are big little brothers for? You won't let me kick the ass of the person making you cry so I gotta do the only other thing I'm good for."_

_"Funny, Cal. You are good for more than that and Alex would crush you in a second. I'm saving you from getting your ass kicked by a woman in makeup and heels."_

_"Lesbians don't count."_

_"Keep telling yourself that," she teased as she hugged Cal and he held her tightly as her head fell on his shoulder, for the first time in a long time Piper felt true comfort. The comfort she had gone looking for in Zelda but only ever gotten when Alex pulled her tenderly against her body and squeezed her so tightly her stomach hurt and she could barely breathe. Once he gently let her go, she grabbed her stuff and then the two headed out of the apartment._


	3. The Strongest Woman I've Ever Met

**A/N: Hope the way this chapter isn't too confusing. Preview of coming attractions, in the next chapter we finally go into the prison and Alex's version of the morning of her release and early days in Columbus. So I hope you'll stick with this craziness.**

As Piper stood in her tiny bathroom and took one last look in the mirror, checking to make sure every hair and every eyelash was in its proper place her mind went back to the moment that she let the full weight of how much she needed Alex hit her.

_Piper stood in front of her mirror in a budget chain hotel near Ohio State wearing the same dress as she had worn the first time that she went to visit Alex, that day felt like a lifetime ago now. She ran her fingers through her hair and checked her makeup. She wished Alex were here with her to reassure her, she had spent the last thirty-six hours doing nothing but applying for food service jobs and only Starbucks had given her even a preliminary interview. Today was her second interview where they would either hire her or not. Getting this job was made even more important when she checked the inmate finder website she had found a week ago over coffee that morning, just like she had each one of the last six days because Alex now showed up as being at Columbus Max._

_ She already knew visiting hours started at 9 am and went until 1 pm on Saturday, just two days away and she still didn't have a plan between Alex making things easy for her and committing a federal felony. As she smoothed the sides of her dress one last time, she remembered the moment Alex reassured her that everything would be okay when she was putting the final touches on her look before she went to Brussels to carry that bag._

_ Standing in the vanity area of her small kitchenette suite, she swore she heard Alex's husky voice whisper, "good luck babe" and kiss her on that spot that only she knew how to touch just right. Piper felt the tattoo on her neck stinging and knew somewhere Alex was thinking about her too. _

_Piper smoothed her neck and rubbed further back to trace the line of the fish on her neck with the ring she still hadn't managed to slip off her finger. It had been so easy to slip off Larry's ring but she'd rather cut off her hand than remove it. But then she would want to cut the arm and place some strategic slices to her heart. The ring managed to slightly cool the burning on her neck but did nothing to relax her tension. _

_She wondered if Alex was still wearing her ring, if she even cared. If Piper were anyone else, she'd conclude that Alex didn't care about anyone, including her own self, but she knew better._

_Alex's problem wasn't that she didn't care, it's that she cared more than she knew how to deal with. Alex's exoskeleton existed because she had such a rare heart and precious soul to protect. For as much as Alex wanted to protect Piper, the younger woman wanted to protect her because Alex was more precious and delicate than her in a different way from Piper's naive innocence. Alex had enough deep bruises and scars, the last thing she needed was more but that seemed like all she ever got. On the one hand, she accepted it. On the other, she put up fortified walls with her glasses, books and badass demeanor but none of those walls represented the sweet woman she used to spend hours in bed with talking naked about anything and everything. _

_Before they found each other, bedroom nakedness was solely for sex for both women but after they acknowledged their love, nudity took on a new meaning. It meant a moment of them completely stripped down and meeting on a level deeper than the deepest seas. Sex was hardly nothing but it also wasn't everything. Piper missed those days most of all and she had spent too much time lately praying to a god she didn't believe in for them to somehow return._

_Piper tried not to think about the plane and the sex-starved men looking at the beautiful, broken creature that was her wife. Would they have even put her on the plane or had they chosen the even less luxurious bus accommodations for her transfer to Ohio? _

_At least now she knew that Alex had arrived in Columbus safely and they were in the same city. Piper slipped on her heels, made sure to grab her key card and purse then headed to her rented Volt that she had completely fallen in love with and didn't know how she'd be able to ever give back. _

_Piper nodded through the interview and answered all the manager's questions honestly even when it was difficult. She must have done something right because at the end he shook her hand and asked her to start at 4 am on Monday. Afterward, she went back to the hotel to pick an outfit for Saturday morning. She settled on a loose powder blue sweater and comfy jeans with a pair of brown boots. It was a perfect balance of comfort and reminding the woman she still loved what she was missing by her idiotic behavior lately, namely those big blue eyes she always called sparkling. _

_She recalled those days where they were still wild, free and on top of the world, she could hardly believe they even were her memories at this point. They could be looking at the most beautiful, bluest bodies of water in the world and Alex would still look over and stare deeply and tenderly into her eyes and say, "Nope. Still not the prettiest, most sparkling blue I've ever seen." It was almost like at a certain point all their adventures were about Alex proving to her that she was the most beautiful, perfectly made thing in the world._

_As Piper looked at her outfit choice one last time, she thought about how she wanted Alex to be able to listen to what she had to say without any distractions. Piper told herself that if there was a next time then she would dress as sexy as possible without breaking the prison regulations but this look fit the mood and she knew Alex would be able to read it the moment she saw her from across the room._


	4. Still Not the Prettiest Blue

**A/N: So we get to shift to the interior of the prison and Alex's perspective for the rest of the story...the sequel will be a first-person version of this narrator...Part two of this chapter should be coming midweek.**

Four years of prison had trained Alex to wake up the moment before the lights were turned up and the day shift guards came around to inform us that breakfast was now served. She savored that moment. Before her transfer from a prison in California to Litchfield just in time for Piper's arrival, she couldn't have planned it better if she had tried, she used to lay there and enjoy the moment before she realized she was in prison and ruined the best thing she'd ever had. Now that she had somehow managed to get that angel of a woman back more times than she deserved she spent that moment looking at Piper's smiling face in the pictures she sent her and the one they had taken together a couple of months ago during Christmas time. This morning she gently pulled all four pictures off the wall and held them against her chest until it felt real that in just a few short hours she would be holding the real woman and nobody could tell her to stop or that she was holding her too tight, she never wanted to let her girl go. She didn't want to go to breakfast but she also didn't want to get a shot for refusing an order so she reluctantly went and tried to decide what she was going to say other than 'your pussy' when her fiancé asked her what she wanted to eat when she came to pick her up.

Alex got up from her usual table with the old Litchfield girls shortly after picking at her food and announcing her imminent release, they were happy for her and Piper but they were sad to see her go. She remembered how suicidal and bulimic she had been when she first arrived at Columbus and how the girls at this table had surrounded her and convinced her to hold on for one more day. And that next day a guard told her she had a visitor and she knew it was Piper before they told her. She felt a jumble of emotions that resembled a summer carnival ride at midnight. These women had gotten her through the rough days and celebrated with her on the good.

DeMarco and Yoga Jones both gave her hugs, Boo didn't react but she could tell she was taking it hard. The two women had developed a friendship over the past year. As grateful as she was to Boo for being there for her and encouraging her to hold on for one more day, she didn't have the time or energy to comfort her, she needed to save everything she had for Piper. But most of all, she needed time alone to think and try to prepare herself to see Piper. Nobody would understand her fear. Fear of the world after so many years away from it. Fear of what saved file she was starting over from with Piper. She worried that they wouldn't be able to recreate the bliss and euphoria of young love in the second half of their thirties. That it wouldn't be as good as it had been when they were young, dumb and in love.

After breakfast, Boo walked into Alex's cell where she was sitting on the bed with her favorite picture of Piper resting on her lap as she made sure she had packed everything.

"Hey, Vause. Count just ended so the guards should be in to get you soon," Alex didn't look up as Boo welcomed herself into Alex's cell, "Earth to Vause, I don't understand why you are spending so much time sitting here looking at a picture of your wife's smiling face when you are about to have that face between your legs."

Alex couldn't let anyone know she was scared so she chose to let the fantasies fluttering around her heart win over the fears ferociously racing around her head, "That's exactly why. Imagining that smile when I walk out of those doors a completely free woman. We had to fight and Piper gave up yet another dream for me but I get to go home without any conditions and have my conviction sealed. I get some cash, I can't say how much, and my passport if I go forty-five days without returning to a life of crime, you never heard any of that though. I'm sure handcuffs will be a part of my reality in the next few weeks but it sure won't be cause I'm headed back to jail."

"Damn, you two are kinky. Never would have taken Blondie for that kind of girl. She seems so vanilla but I can also see how she could use a spanking, willful little thing that she is. Maybe if she had been spanked as a child then we wouldn't be here talking about her. She wouldn't have turned to someone like you. Chapman and Nichols have one thing in common, mommy issues that turned them to some bad choices and in her case, an even worse woman."

"Keep flapping your jaws and I'll make sure you can't for a while or maybe even never again. Not that you deserve it but I got you a present," Alex walked across the cell to her locker and grabbed four Snickers bars and handed them to her.

"Aww, thanks, Vause. But you know what I really want."

"Only one other person will ever know exactly who that person is and it's not you."

"C'mon in a few hours you'll be in your wife's apartment having sex with the little screamer herself and I'll be here alone. Give me some spank bank material. I've kept the part of your secret you were willing to tell me for what a year?"

"About that."

"C'mon Vause, don't make me beg. I'm pretty sure I know who it was and we both know who I fucked so there's no way yours can be a bigger deal then mine."

"Well, I doubt you ever commanded Linda from purchasing to get on her knees and eat your pussy and have her actually do it like I did mine. Or turn Linda into the shaky little cunt she is. I'll never forget being pulled into the warden's office and being asked over real coffee and donuts, 'what would it take to make your wife's little lawsuit disappear before anyone can find out it ever existed.' God, I love making women quiver and beg, it's so easy and gratifying. Especially stuck up little cunts. Besides, remind me again who set that one up for you? Who found a scared business executive during a riot and took pity on the poor thing? We could have done whatever we wanted to her at that moment, so we gave you that one."

"Thanks for that but it has run its course, Vause. I need some new material or I could just imagine you fucking your wife. Or even more fun, getting fucked by her. Cause I know your poorly kept secret about your sexual proclivities. You may like people to think you are a dom top but really that little brat has your pussy whipped and you like riding that little power bottom's face and not just to shut her ass up. Who's wearing the dildo tonight, Vause? You like the straight girls and looking forward to taking a dick up your pussy in your first hours as a free woman?"

Alex pushed up her glasses and looked up at the ceiling trying to gain her composure and keep herself from cumming at the thought of Piper's well-trained tongue and fingers between her legs, effortlessly finding every part of her that she hid from the world.

"You are really fucking lucky I'm about to see my wife and not about to piss her off because I justifiably beat your ass and got new charges. Do I need to remind you what Piper Chapman is like when she gets truly angry? And Piper Vause is a million times worse. So, for both our sakes, have a little respect for the institution of marriage I know you don't believe in it or anything my wife and I are about both inside and outside these walls but there's a line you don't cross."

"Okay, Vause. Can I replay the classics?"

"If it was before we were married and you saw it sure."

"So, was it the only female guard during the riot?"

"What do you think?"

"Well, we both know it wasn't one of the guys."

"Then there's your answer."

"Damn, Vause. That is better than mine. How do you do it, Vause?"

"Do what?"

"In one lifetime turn a beautiful, privileged straight chick into a card-carrying lesbo, get a guard to not just have sex with you but to actually fall in love with you and get away with brazenly doing both in a federal prison?"

"I'm in Ohio, I hardly see how I got away with it."

"You doing extra time for any of it? Have you spent a second of your time anywhere but gen pop?"

"You have a point and don't forget the part where a former high-ranking drug trafficker and recruiter gets to sleep with a hot, well connected paralegal every night for the rest of her life."

"Now you are just gloating, Vause. Bet you can't wait until you can bend her over her desk and fuck her."

Alex glared at Boo as a surge of wetness sped through her body and the other woman smirked from the sight of her nearly orgasming from merely fantasizing about sex with Piper. She couldn't wait to have the time and space to dominate her pussy from behind as she screamed and cried in ecstasy. To watch her grasp the counter harder as she aimed a direct hit on that special spot buried deep inside her and moan as she let go and gave in to her deepest, kinkiest desires. The moan would only make her fuck her harder, deeper and more rapidly as she filled her completely and left her raw afterward then ate her out to cool the pain.

Boo decided not to keep pushing Alex and turned to leave the slightly younger woman alone but didn't get far before Alex took a deep breath, "I never thanked you for that night we talked and what you did for me when I got here. You were right. What hope is there for the young ones if they see a smart, powerful thirtysomething lesbian hauled out of here in a body bag? Tricia and Poussey dying were horrible things but that would have been something impossible to recover from. There wouldn't have been a silver lining if they believed it wouldn't ever get better. Those girls had so much passion and promise. They didn't get to live and have a life outside of drugs and prison but I do, regardless of how deserving I am or am not."


	5. Cool the Pain

"I still remember that night."

"We got time still?"

Boo peeked around the corner and saw that the guards were still finishing their routine morning checks, "Yeah, we have time for one last story before you go, Vause."

_Alex didn't notice she was being followed as she headed into the bathroom to try to clean the travel stink off her. She turned on the sink, she still couldn't handle being naked without that ache in her soul clawing her gut as her mind wafted to thoughts of Piper's gentle caresses on her slick skin. She knew if she made it out of here alive and she won the wife jackpot she would never deny those bright blue eyes with soapy hair pleading, 'join me, baby.' Because of her brokenness and depression, she hadn't gotten naked or showered by choice since the morning before her last visit with Piper. Alex didn't notice much of anything that happened to her or even care. Most of the other girls were enjoying the last moments of TV time before being locked into their cells for the night so the bathroom was deserted. She jumped when she heard a familiar voice._

_"Hey, Vause. Surprised to see you here."_

_"Boo," she turned around with a pissed off look on her face at her much-needed quiet time being interrupted, "Did DeMarco send you in here?"_

_"Yeah. Why are you here? What happened?"_

_"I don't-"_

_"Vause, it's either you talk to me or DeMarco goes to the guards and tells them you are suicidal and actively engaged in self-harm behaviors. So, you can either open up about whatever dyke drama you and Chapman have going on this time or you can spend some quality time with the nice prison psychiatrist in a rubber room with a paper gown, I'm sure they would be so understanding of lesbian issues."_

_"I can't."_

_"You don't have a choice. I am not going to just let you die. We have never understood each other and we never will but I can't watch you kill yourself. It's bad enough watching the young ones die."_

_"And this doesn't leave this room?"_

_"No, Vause, it won't."_

_"How do I know I can trust you? What I did, if it gets out everybody on either side of the bars will treat me differently and I don't want that. From the start I just wanted to keep my head down and do my time, then Piper came back and I wanted to do my time and love my girl but I didn't expect it would be so hard. That I would have to choose one or the other. All I've ever really wanted since I met her was to love her and if I can't do that then I just want to be left alone. I get a fresh start and I don't want it ruined by anyone finding out the real reason I got sent here."_

_"Because to betray your confidence wouldn't just ruin my reputation in this prison but the lesbian community. I can't betray my own kind. Just imagine we are in a gay bar and you are a brokenhearted lesbian."_

_"I don't have to imagine. I'm beyond broken-hearted. I thought I knew pain after she left me in Paris but this is nothing in comparison. She's in me. She was supposed to be a fun little diversion from my unhappy life and a way to feel needed again but that lasted all of a few minutes. I saw her nose scrunch and her eyes sparkle when she laughed and I was done. I fell in love, I never meant for any of this to happen but she's a part of me and now I don't know what to do. I guess I'm already talking so I might as well tell you what's going on. You know it's kinda crazy; sometimes I don't know how the scenario of us meeting in a New York City bar didn't play out in the real world."_

_"Yeah, the Manhattan lesbian scene must be bigger than anybody knows. So, let's start with why are you in Ohio? It's not the riot, the punishments for that were dealt out, what nearly a year ago now?"_

_"Something like that, I've sorta lost track of time since Piper got out, I don't want to think about it. I had a romantic relationship with a guard."_

_"Like an actual relationship? Last I saw you and Chapman seemed pretty on. But of course, I've also seen how long that tends to last."_

_"You know if you want me to talk you are going to have to refrain from trash-talking Piper and our relationship! You said you wanted to listen and show compassion!"_

_"Okay, sorry, go on."_

_"Yeah. It started out a lesser of two evils situation then after a while, I knew she had strong feelings for me and I could control her so I got her to deliver a t-shirt to Piper but it only made the desire we had for each other worse. I broke it off, she was in love with me but I wasn't and she was out for blood."_

_"So, she had you sent to Ohio to punish you and let me guess she's not receiving punishment of any kind?"_

_"Yeah and that's not even the worst thing she did."_

_"What could be worse than being sent to this shithole?"_

_"Believe me this place is a world-class luxury hotel compared to what Litchfield has become since the riot. Since she brought Piper the shirt, she knew her address and because I have a knack for bringing out the psycho in psycho bitches, she started stalking her after I ended it. She fucking confronted her in the middle of the night when she was with someone else and tried to use that information to win me back."_

_"Went back to dick, did she? Par for the course, Vause. They all end the same way. You and Nichols will never listen. We all wish we could turn the straight ones and think our special brand of lovin' can win out but it never will. She at least give you a name or description?"_

_"I've seen videos of them. I already knew they were friends."_

_"What's his name?"_

_"Zelda."_

_"That's a strange name for a guy."_

_Alex just rolled her eyes and glared at Boo._

_"Oh. She left you for a chick? So she's gay gay?"_

_"She's bi. And she's gone bye-bye. For good this time. And it's for the best. I know it is. I broke it off with her but I can't take this damn ring off," Alex showed her hand to Boo with its shiny silver infinity symbol paperclip ring._

_"You guys got married?"_

_"Yeah after you left the bunker she came back and proposed to me. The day she left we got married, well prison married. But I know that's just a lie I tell myself like when I used to call us a fling after she left me in Paris. I've had nothing but time to think the past few days and I've gained some insight into things. I constantly try to say our relationship is nothing so I don't have to face just how much it is something. How real these things she makes me feel are. I don't deserve to have her call me her life or tell me all these sweet things and not just say them but act on them. She sent me this envelope full of these papers with all these little things written on them. Things even I don't recognize about myself but she does and loves me for. I told her to move on. She has feelings for this other woman and her family accepts Zelda in a way that no matter what I do they'll never accept me. She's pretty, educated and has a high powered career. She can give her the love and the life she deserves. I don't have anything to give her except a lifetime of cinder blocks and steel bars. Spending all her time either waiting for the phone to ring or traversing the miles to and from prison on her day off from work. She's better off with Zelda. With someone that she can grow old with. Piper wants soup and walking hand in hand to the ass doctor and I want so badly to give that to her but I can't. It's not who I am. She deserves quiet moments with her spouse. Or not so quiet moments with babies and weekends full of home remodeling projects. Most of all, she deserves someone who doesn't force her to have a life that's so small. That she has to conceal or risk rejection."_

_"You know you don't believe that. I've seen a lot of intense lesbian relationships in my time, both in here and on the outside but what I've seen between you two is something so real. Even though it's toxic and you don't want to, you find yourself rooting for it. You deserve to be loved and have someone who sees the good in you. You are a good person, this isn't your life, Vause. Your life is that girl who I agree deserves better but chooses you anyway. And if you want a life of soup, ass doctors and to put a baby in Chapman you should have those things because you are worthy of them. And you are that kind of woman, at least for her and that's all that matters. You think nobody can see your heart but you aren't nearly as good at concealing your true nature as you think you are. You are tough but also vulnerable. I don't know how one thing can be both ends of so many dichotomies at once but you pull it off so effortlessly. I don't get it but I respect it."_

_"But she's never chosen me. She chose to abandon me the day my mom died, then Larry, then Stella and now Zelda."_

_"Did she actually tell you she chose Zelda or is that what you heard because you wanted to?"_

_"Fuck, Boo. I think you are onto something. The last thing she said was she could never stop loving me. But still, I don't know if I believe it. She leaves, it's what she does."_

_"Because you push her away. Because the second some little slut shows her any attention you shut down. We both know there isn't an ass in the world you can't kick successfully on a bad day, including mine and that's saying a lot. Hold on and give her a chance because if there's one thing I know that girl and you is that she's never gone for long. She is smitten with you in a way that I wish just once somebody would be for me just for five minutes. But I'll never know that feeling so I have to live through you two crazy freaks. And when she does come back you listen to her and accept her love. Maybe you don't have anything to give her but I don't think Chapman needs anybody to give her anything, we've both seen how strong-willed and independent to a fault she is. It's not what you have to give her, it's what she has to give you. You have needs, I'm not going to think any less of you for being a woman and I won't let anyone in here do it either. Now, when you're out of here you are on your own but something tells me you'll have that covered by a certain leggy yet pretentious blonde once you are on the outside."_

_"She's not coming back this time."_

_"I ran a gambling racket. I'm putting my expertise in betting on Chapman probably being on her way to you right now but you don't know it."_

_"Well, that would be a better explanation for why she didn't take my call two days ago."_

_"Optimism, Elvira. And just like that, we have progress. So, this guard, was she hot?"_

_"Totally but nowhere near the hottest chick ever and she didn't have that instinctual quality I was craving."_

_"Yeah, yeah blah blah, save it for a different dyke. We should get out of here before somebody comes in."_

_"You know people are going to see us walk out of here. What are we going to say? Cause we didn't fight or fuck and we never would do either, despite those being the only options for women like us in here."_

_"I have a plan. I'll have to take a hit and there will be some acting involved but if we can pull it off then it'll be better for everyone involved. Nobody knows you are from Litchfield, at least not yet. They don't know we have history. You are just an attractive piece of fresh meat to them. Me following you in here isn't outside their expectations."_

_"I don't want the riot to follow me here any more than I want having an affair with a guard who became obsessed with me to do just that. I just want to do my time and find a way to get some undeserved forgiveness from my beautiful, sweet Pipes."_

_"I know, I know you wanted no part in the riot but Chapman had other ideas. That girl is trouble."_

_Alex pushed her glasses up then rolled her eyes and glared at her with an expression that made her anger clear to the older woman._

_"But you are into it so here's what we do. I tell the girls I made a pass at you but you rejected me and told me you had a wife on the outside and I backed off. Everybody will know you are a lesbian but also unavailable. Nobody will expect you to have a place in the pecking order, you can be left alone with your never-ending stack of novels for the rest of your sentence. I'm taking a hit here, Vause, but it'll give you some time to get your shit together. Work things out with Chapman. This will give you a few days of being left alone to do that and to be sad about leaving her five hundred something miles away."_

_"And when they realize I don't?"_

_"We both pray Chapman comes through with her end of a deal she has no idea she's involved in."_

_"Guess I don't have anything to lose and at least I get to spend hours with my fingers caressing the folds of a book if I can't run them through the folds I'm actually craving right now. Running my hands along the spine of something. You have a deal, Boo."_

Just then a female CO showed up at the door, "Inmate Black, this isn't your cell. I'm not going to give you a shot since Vause is leaving and we all know you two would never in a million years do anything inappropriate. But in the future say your goodbyes in the common areas."

"Yes, Officer Torres."

"Good. Vause, some anxious blonde is wringing her hands in the lobby, we'd kinda like to get her out of here before she changes her mind about not suing us. I need this shitty job. The towns between Columbus and the border of Kentucky need this prison to survive."

"God, I need to find an activist lawyer to fuck," Boo joked as she headed out of Alex's cell.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Black," the CO hollered before turning her attention to Alex, "You ready, Vause?"

"Yeah. Can't have my wife thinking every dark scenario that brilliant mind can come up with."

"Good luck, Vause. Take care of that girl and don't forget it's okay to admit that you need her. Can I hug her, Officer Torres," Boo asked the CO.

"Quickly but keep it friendly and don't let it get out that I allowed it or all the lesbians will be trying to get away with it."

The CO blocked the door while the two women hugged and for the first time any fear Alex had left her body and she was ready for the rest of her life to start. She was ready to walk outside of the steel bars and grey cinder blocks and create a life with the woman she loved free of prison and drugs but still full of adventure and euphoria.


	6. Folds and Spines

"I still remember that night."

"We got time still?"

Boo peeked around the corner and saw that the guards were still finishing their routine morning checks, "Yeah, we have time for one last story before you go, Vause."

_Alex didn't notice she was being followed as she headed into the bathroom to try to clean the travel stink off her. She turned on the sink, she still couldn't handle being naked without that ache in her soul clawing her gut as her mind wafted to thoughts of Piper's gentle caresses on her slick skin. She knew if she made it out of here alive and she won the wife jackpot she would never deny those bright blue eyes with soapy hair pleading, 'join me, baby.' Because of her brokenness and depression, she hadn't gotten naked or showered by choice since the morning before her last visit with Piper. Alex didn't notice much of anything that happened to her or even care. Most of the other girls were enjoying the last moments of TV time before being locked into their cells for the night so the bathroom was deserted. She jumped when she heard a familiar voice._

_"Hey, Vause. Surprised to see you here."_

_"Boo," she turned around with a pissed off look on her face at her much-needed quiet time being interrupted, "Did DeMarco send you in here?"_

_"Yeah. Why are you here? What happened?"_

_"I don't-"_

_"Vause, it's either you talk to me or DeMarco goes to the guards and tells them you are suicidal and actively engaged in self-harm behaviors. So, you can either open up about whatever dyke drama you and Chapman have going on this time or you can spend some quality time with the nice prison psychiatrist in a rubber room with a paper gown, I'm sure they would be so understanding of lesbian issues."_

_"I can't."_

_"You don't have a choice. I am not going to just let you die. We have never understood each other and we never will but I can't watch you kill yourself. It's bad enough watching the young ones die."_

_"And this doesn't leave this room?"_

_"No, Vause, it won't."_

_"How do I know I can trust you? What I did, if it gets out everybody on either side of the bars will treat me differently and I don't want that. From the start I just wanted to keep my head down and do my time, then Piper came back and I wanted to do my time and love my girl but I didn't expect it would be so hard. That I would have to choose one or the other. All I've ever really wanted since I met her was to love her and if I can't do that then I just want to be left alone. I get a fresh start and I don't want it ruined by anyone finding out the real reason I got sent here."_

_"Because to betray your confidence wouldn't just ruin my reputation in this prison but the lesbian community. I can't betray my own kind. Just imagine we are in a gay bar and you are a brokenhearted lesbian."_

_"I don't have to imagine. I'm beyond broken-hearted. I thought I knew pain after she left me in Paris but this is nothing in comparison. She's in me. She was supposed to be a fun little diversion from my unhappy life and a way to feel needed again but that lasted all of a few minutes. I saw her nose scrunch and her eyes sparkle when she laughed and I was done. I fell in love, I never meant for any of this to happen but she's a part of me and now I don't know what to do. I guess I'm already talking so I might as well tell you what's going on. You know it's kinda crazy; sometimes I don't know how the scenario of us meeting in a New York City bar didn't play out in the real world."_

_"Yeah, the Manhattan lesbian scene must be bigger than anybody knows. So, let's start with why are you in Ohio? It's not the riot, the punishments for that were dealt out, what nearly a year ago now?"_

_"Something like that, I've sorta lost track of time since Piper got out, I don't want to think about it. I had a romantic relationship with a guard."_

_"Like an actual relationship? Last I saw you and Chapman seemed pretty on. But of course, I've also seen how long that tends to last."_

_"You know if you want me to talk you are going to have to refrain from trash-talking Piper and our relationship! You said you wanted to listen and show compassion!"_

_"Okay, sorry, go on."_

_"Yeah. It started out a lesser of two evils situation then after a while, I knew she had strong feelings for me and I could control her so I got her to deliver a t-shirt to Piper but it only made the desire we had for each other worse. I broke it off, she was in love with me but I wasn't and she was out for blood."_

_"So, she had you sent to Ohio to punish you and let me guess she's not receiving punishment of any kind?"_

_"Yeah and that's not even the worst thing she did."_

_"What could be worse than being sent to this shithole?"_

_"Believe me this place is a world-class luxury hotel compared to what Litchfield has become since the riot. Since she brought Piper the shirt, she knew her address and because I have a knack for bringing out the psycho in psycho bitches, she started stalking her after I ended it. She fucking confronted her in the middle of the night when she was with someone else and tried to use that information to win me back."_

_"Went back to dick, did she? Par for the course, Vause. They all end the same way. You and Nichols will never listen. We all wish we could turn the straight ones and think our special brand of lovin' can win out but it never will. She at least give you a name or description?"_

_"I've seen videos of them. I already knew they were friends."_

_"What's his name?"_

_"Zelda."_

_"That's a strange name for a guy."_

_Alex just rolled her eyes and glared at Boo._

_"Oh. She left you for a chick? So she's gay gay?"_

_"She's bi. And she's gone bye-bye. For good this time. And it's for the best. I know it is. I broke it off with her but I can't take this damn ring off," Alex showed her hand to Boo with its shiny silver infinity symbol paperclip ring._

_"You guys got married?"_

_"Yeah after you left the bunker she came back and proposed to me. The day she left we got married, well prison married. But I know that's just a lie I tell myself like when I used to call us a fling after she left me in Paris. I've had nothing but time to think the past few days and I've gained some insight into things. I constantly try to say our relationship is nothing so I don't have to face just how much it is something. How real these things she makes me feel are. I don't deserve to have her call me her life or tell me all these sweet things and not just say them but act on them. She sent me this envelope full of these papers with all these little things written on them. Things even I don't recognize about myself but she does and loves me for. I told her to move on. She has feelings for this other woman and her family accepts Zelda in a way that no matter what I do they'll never accept me. She's pretty, educated and has a high powered career. She can give her the love and the life she deserves. I don't have anything to give her except a lifetime of cinder blocks and steel bars. Spending all her time either waiting for the phone to ring or traversing the miles to and from prison on her day off from work. She's better off with Zelda. With someone that she can grow old with. Piper wants soup and walking hand in hand to the ass doctor and I want so badly to give that to her but I can't. It's not who I am. She deserves quiet moments with her spouse. Or not so quiet moments with babies and weekends full of home remodeling projects. Most of all, she deserves someone who doesn't force her to have a life that's so small. That she has to conceal or risk rejection."_

_"You know you don't believe that. I've seen a lot of intense lesbian relationships in my time, both in here and on the outside but what I've seen between you two is something so real. Even though it's toxic and you don't want to, you find yourself rooting for it. You deserve to be loved and have someone who sees the good in you. You are a good person, this isn't your life, Vause. Your life is that girl who I agree deserves better but chooses you anyway. And if you want a life of soup, ass doctors and to put a baby in Chapman you should have those things because you are worthy of them. And you are that kind of woman, at least for her and that's all that matters. You think nobody can see your heart but you aren't nearly as good at concealing your true nature as you think you are. You are tough but also vulnerable. I don't know how one thing can be both ends of so many dichotomies at once but you pull it off so effortlessly. I don't get it but I respect it."_

_"But she's never chosen me. She chose to abandon me the day my mom died, then Larry, then Stella and now Zelda."_

_"Did she actually tell you she chose Zelda or is that what you heard because you wanted to?"_

_"Fuck, Boo. I think you are onto something. The last thing she said was she could never stop loving me. But still, I don't know if I believe it. She leaves, it's what she does."_

_"Because you push her away. Because the second some little slut shows her any attention you shut down. We both know there isn't an ass in the world you can't kick successfully on a bad day, including mine and that's saying a lot. Hold on and give her a chance because if there's one thing I know that girl and you is that she's never gone for long. She is smitten with you in a way that I wish just once somebody would be for me just for five minutes. But I'll never know that feeling so I have to live through you two crazy freaks. And when she does come back you listen to her and accept her love. Maybe you don't have anything to give her but I don't think Chapman needs anybody to give her anything, we've both seen how strong-willed and independent to a fault she is. It's not what you have to give her, it's what she has to give you. You have needs, I'm not going to think any less of you for being a woman and I won't let anyone in here do it either. Now, when you're out of here you are on your own but something tells me you'll have that covered by a certain leggy yet pretentious blonde once you are on the outside."_

_"She's not coming back this time."_

_"I ran a gambling racket. I'm putting my expertise in betting on Chapman probably being on her way to you right now but you don't know it."_

_"Well, that would be a better explanation for why she didn't take my call two days ago."_

_"Optimism, Elvira. And just like that, we have progress. So, this guard, was she hot?"_

_"Totally but nowhere near the hottest chick ever and she didn't have that instinctual quality I was craving."_

_"Yeah, yeah blah blah, save it for a different dyke. We should get out of here before somebody comes in."_

_"You know people are going to see us walk out of here. What are we going to say? Cause we didn't fight or fuck and we never would do either, despite those being the only options for women like us in here."_

_"I have a plan. I'll have to take a hit and there will be some acting involved but if we can pull it off then it'll be better for everyone involved. Nobody knows you are from Litchfield, at least not yet. They don't know we have history. You are just an attractive piece of fresh meat to them. Me following you in here isn't outside their expectations."_

_"I don't want the riot to follow me here any more than I want having an affair with a guard who became obsessed with me to do just that. I just want to do my time and find a way to get some undeserved forgiveness from my beautiful, sweet Pipes."_

_"I know, I know you wanted no part in the riot but Chapman had other ideas. That girl is trouble."_

_Alex pushed her glasses up then rolled her eyes and glared at her with an expression that made her anger clear to the older woman._

_"But you are into it so here's what we do. I tell the girls I made a pass at you but you rejected me and told me you had a wife on the outside and I backed off. Everybody will know you are a lesbian but also unavailable. Nobody will expect you to have a place in the pecking order, you can be left alone with your never-ending stack of novels for the rest of your sentence. I'm taking a hit here, Vause, but it'll give you some time to get your shit together. Work things out with Chapman. This will give you a few days of being left alone to do that and to be sad about leaving her five hundred something miles away."_

_"And when they realize I don't?"_

_"We both pray Chapman comes through with her end of a deal she has no idea she's involved in."_

_"Guess I don't have anything to lose and at least I get to spend hours with my fingers caressing the folds of a book if I can't run them through the folds I'm actually craving right now. Running my hands along the spine of something. You have a deal, Boo."_

Just then a female CO showed up at the door, "Inmate Black, this isn't your cell. I'm not going to give you a shot since Vause is leaving and we all know you two would never in a million years do anything inappropriate. But in the future say your goodbyes in the common areas."

"Yes, Officer Torres."

"Good. Vause, some anxious blonde is wringing her hands in the lobby, we'd kinda like to get her out of here before she changes her mind about not suing us. I need this shitty job. The towns between Columbus and the border of Kentucky need this prison to survive."

"God, I need to find an activist lawyer to fuck," Boo joked as she headed out of Alex's cell.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Black," the CO hollered before turning her attention to Alex, "You ready, Vause?"

"Yeah. Can't have my wife thinking every dark scenario that brilliant mind can come up with."

"Good luck, Vause. Take care of that girl and don't forget it's okay to admit that you need her. Can I hug her, Officer Torres," Boo asked the CO.

"Quickly but keep it friendly and don't let it get out that I allowed it or all the lesbians will be trying to get away with it."

The CO blocked the door while the two women hugged and for the first time any fear Alex had left her body and she was ready for the rest of her life to start. She was ready to walk outside of the steel bars and grey cinder blocks and create a life with the woman she loved free of prison and drugs but still full of adventure and euphoria.


	7. A Million and One

**A/N: Since you guys were so sweet and loved the last chapter so much I decided to give you guys a little treat and give you the next chapter early and I added in a few more hints of jealous Piper...We get to see a flashback of Vauseman's first meeting in Ohio...this visit is imagined to be before the one portrayed in the final scene of Orange...we have to get past angsty and in pain Vauseman with no library to be the catalyst for express their needs first...but if they could fuck, they would and they both know it.**

Back at Piper's apartment, the blonde was checking herself in the mirror one last time before heading out the door with a tumbler of organic breakfast tea with organic creamer, she thought about coffee but she was already feeling jittery and hyper, and another one with single-origin fair trade organic cold brew coffee and almond milk for Alex, a little surprise for her. Well, one of two little surprises. The other one was for the older woman's eyes only, an all lace nude bra and thong set she had underneath her button-down yellow polka dot dress. The dress itself had an understated sexiness and had been bought for this very occasion and because it seemed like she'd have fun getting it off her. She left the top three buttons down to show off her breasts and the skirt came down almost to her knee with a white sash she tied tightly around her waist, giving her more curves than she actually had. She knew Alex would have fun getting her out of it the second she tried it on in a small boutique in the artsy area of town. She topped it off with an emerald green cardigan and chunky brown heels. She walked out to the street and hopped into her car, a black Volt, and pulled out onto the street as her mind wandered back to that first visit.

_Piper showed up at the prison two hours before visitation and waited to get into the doors then waited again to check-in. She took a deep breath as the Hispanic guy in front of her finished checking in and tried to drown out the three babies wailing and the toddler throwing a tantrum. She walked up to the desk and smiled at the guard, her time in prison had made her an expert at how to get what she wanted from prison guards._

_"Piper Chapman here to see Alex Vause. Inmate 1975-0425."_

_"Let me check the records," he shuffled through a stack of papers, "We have an inmate Vause listed and your name does show on her list, in fact, you are the only name that carried over from her previous list, but she's a new transfer so she hasn't completed orientation protocol."_

_"Can't you make an exception," Piper asked the guard as she gave him that sweet look Alex had taught her could get her anything and then in her sweetest, most innocent voice added, "She's my wife. Please, we've had a rough few weeks and I just need to see her to know if she's okay and make sure she knows I'm here for her. We didn't part well our last visit and I need her to know I'm going to fight with everything I have for her. I'm trying to save my marriage. I've loved her since I was twenty-two and obviously," she looked around at the grey and green walls, "she's made some huge mistakes. And so have I. And she's given up on herself because sometimes she's a cocky asshole and other times she's the little girl curled up in the fetal position who doesn't know she's beautiful and worthy. And right about now I'm dealing with the little girl and trust me the asshole is easier. I just need to see her. Please, sir. She's the love of my life and I can't lose her."_

_"We can check her disciplinary record but if we make an exception then it's a one-time only thing and you will have to wait the normal two to four weeks for her to be fully processed and assessed."_

_"Thank you."_

_"I'm not making any guarantees."_

_Fifteen minutes later and way too many stares from the people kept waiting while three guards read over her wife's file and discussed amongst themselves, the guard came back._

_"Ms. Chapman, we have read over Inmate Vause's file and see no major infractions that would prevent an exemption. She has agreed to the visit," the head guard told her._

_"She knows I'm here? She wants to see me?"_

_"You sound surprised."_

_"We didn't exactly leave off on good terms before her transfer. I guess we're separated. She tried to call a couple of days ago but I couldn't pick up and I'm sure she's thinking the worst. That's just how she is."_

_"I've seen a lot in this job. I thought working in women's prison would be easier but I have yet to see one marriage survive this place. Who knows, maybe you'll be the first. You're here fighting. But you have a lot of rounds ahead. You can go ahead and sit down in the visitation room. They'll be bringing your wife in soon. We just need you to sign this paper."_

_Piper signed it and then another guard led her to a long table with a cement barrier in the center. She smiled as she noticed the lack of barriers, at least there were no phones or glass at this prison. She took a seat and tried to quiet the nervousness that was making her hands and legs shake when she saw a skinnier, paler version of the woman she loved walk in. Piper didn't know whether to smile or cry as she watched a battered and broken Alex shakily walk in with eyes full of pain but when she saw that glimmer of hope and self-assurance that Diane had so painstakingly drilled into the older woman from childhood her heart couldn't help but sing._

_"Hey, what are you doin' here?"_

_"Careful, Al. Remember the first time you asked me that?"_

_"Mmmm…remind me," Alex teased as she pressed her hands against her breasts to emphasize them as much as she could in a prison jumpsuit then sat down as Piper imagined her on top of her teasing her mouth with her hard nipples dangling above her face as she rubbed against her body and touched her pussy. Piper was almost so trapped in her fantasy and need that she almost didn't notice Alex smile for the first time in about a week, "God, that smile. Full of sweetness and wanton desire."_

_"If that's something you miss it might be somewhere in the archives, I could pull it up if it were worth the effort."_

_"Start combing, kid. I want to kiss you so bad."_

_Alex didn't deserve to see the images in her mind or to know that a kiss was the least of what she wanted in her mouth right now. Piper looked over at the guard on the opposite corner from them who was more interested in some magazine than the inmates and their visitors then back at Alex, as much as she wanted to stand firm in her resolve when Alex gave her that pained look that told her everything she needed to know about who truly held all the power in their relationship, "Then why don't you? I'm still hurt but I also still love you so much and I can tell you are hurting. One kiss, just to get it out of our system so we can talk. But we aren't going to hide beyond sex anymore. What we have is worth more than that, baby."_

_"Look around, I wish even one kiss were possible."_

_"I did, you taught me how to assess a situation and exploit an opportunity. Just a quick, chaste peck on the lips. The guards aren't watching. Trust me, if it weren't safe would I ask," Piper teased as she licked her lips, letting her tongue linger a little longer than necessary, and leaned on her elbows with what she knew was Alex's favorite sultry expression on her that literally brought Alex to her knees every time._

_"And I'm the criminal mastermind," Alex quickly leaned over the concrete barricade and Piper raised out of her seat just enough to close the gap between the two of them. Their lips met for a second, maybe two but it had that same souls crashing feeling as when they used to kiss for hours._

_"I love you, Pipes. Nobody kisses me like you."_

_"Remember that next time you think about putting those lips on someone else."_

_"And what about you?"_

_"I will if you will. I didn't want, no, I'm not here to fight or rehash shit. I hurt and I hurt even more seeing you like this. I'm not angry anymore. Just in pain," Piper's eyes fell to the spot where she knew Alex's love is pain tattoo was, "I know I've hurt you and I should have chosen to stand by you a long time ago. I can't change the past. I can't go back and not be a pussy. But I'm here now fighting for you, for us, Al. I choose you." _

_"I just don't know how it'll work. You live a day's drive away. Your life is in New York City."_

_"Not anymore. I have a job here and I'm starting classes in a few weeks. Just at Starbucks and a couple of paralegal classes at the community college."_

_"Tell me you aren't living on the street."_

_"No but I guess I'm technically homeless, I'm staying at a cheap suite motel just north of Columbus. I made sure to look for evidence of drug activity before I chose to stay there. It's mostly new immigrants and working-class people new to the city. People struggling to save enough to start a new life. I slept my first two nights in my rental car, it was so cold and I went three days without a shower. I've never been more thankful for dry shampoo and single-stall bathrooms in my life. The hotel is clean and there's hot water. The sheets are thin but no evidence of bedbugs or roaches. I have a microwave and a small fridge. They have coffee, tea and sometimes donuts in the lobby. I can't stay there longer than a month so I'll probably be living out of hotels for a while unless I can find a program to help me get an apartment."_

_"Damn you are crazy, kid. Pipes, you could be waking up in what I'm sure is an amazing apartment with a gorgeous redhead who would gladly give you whatever you want but you choose to live in a shitty motel to be near me? Are you insane?"_

_"No, I've never felt more sane or sure than I did the moment I passed over the Ohio state line. I'm not letting you go that easy. Zelda can give me things. Sex, money, status. I'm not going to argue with you on that. She has strong feelings for me and I was developing them for her too. But she has all these things yet doesn't appreciate or notice them. She just takes everything for granted but I can't do that after everything I've been through with you and this system. That life was never meant for me. Sure, I was born into it and my night as Cinderella was amazing but it isn't the one that I chose or want. I don't care what you can't give me now or won't ever be able to give me. I want more than sex and money from you. You mean more than that. You are a part of me and I would rather die than live without you. I can't go back."_

_"I'm dead weight. You can't go forward with me by your side. Do you really want to be stuck in Ohio for three years?"_

_"If that's where you are. You are my home, my rock, my everything. I feel alive when I'm with you. Maybe you have nothing to give me but maybe that was never really the point. Maybe we met so I could give you what you need and deserve. Even Saint Diane gave up at a point. She told me you had an outlaw soul and nobody was going to change you, well until she got to know me and told me I had a gypsy soul, that we both had wild souls and if I could find the strength and empowerment to own it than I might be the one to love you better than she ever could. To be what you needed and get you to listen. I'm not going to say there wasn't a time you didn't have a million things to teach me, well now's the time I prove what I've learned. You've given me so much but there's no denying you have nothing more to give me. That I don't need you anymore. That the high roller lifestyle of adventure and intrigue is over. But we are life partners, soulmates. It's my turn to take over and show you everything beautiful about you and how much potential you have. You are more than a drug dealer and more than this place. I am going to spend the next three years by your side holding your hand in every way possible. You are gorgeous and you have the best tits I've ever seen and will ever see," Piper watched as Alex's seriousness gave way to a cocky smirk and rolled eyes as what she said sunk in, "But that's not what's important. If it were then I wouldn't be fighting so hard to grow old with your stubborn ass. Looks fade. You'll get wrinkles, age spots and no amount of black hair dye will be able to hide the grey hairs. Your tits will sag and get stretch marks. They could even try to kill you one day. I hope they never do and the only thing I fear is someday you getting sick. And I will still be here loving you. Why? Because you are smart, confident and strong. You thrive under pressure. You always know how to put me at ease whether it's trafficking drug money in some place Americans have no business being or the middle of a prison riot and so many tiny instances in between those two main ones. Those were the scariest moments of my life-"_

_"They never would have happened if it hadn't been for me."_

_"Shut up, sit back and listen, Alex Pearl Vause! Or else."_

_Alex sat back, pushed her glasses up and crossed her arms with a commanding smirk that did nothing to intimidate Piper, she was immune to her. This act made Piper roll her eyes at her wife and caused Alex to act even more indignant._

_"You have such an amazing heart beating underneath that hot body and those pillowy tits. You use them to distract the girls on purpose and get what you want. Oh, and it drove me insane but the Bonnie and Clyde act we had going on was pretty hot. I'd go on with Diane for hours and again she'd remind me you were the girl in every port type. You know what I realized somewhere in the middle of Amish Country," Piper asked but Alex said nothing, just nodded her head no, "Ultimately all you are doing with them is hiding the heart underneath them. And I know your heart, so I get it. I treasure every bit of you, especially everything in that area. I'm still a boob woman. But back to my point. You care about people, even when they are on the opposing side. You are loyal. You put everyone first to a fault. You can't bear to see anyone be hurt. And I could go on but the best thing about that heart is that for whatever crazy reason it beats for me. That I am the only person allowed to see it in all its glory and call it mine. And that will always be more precious than anything Zelda could ever give me. Something I will always fight for. If you want to get rid of me then you are going to have to try harder. I'm not letting you go and I will cut a bitch if she's worth the broken heel and chipped manicure which so far, the psycho bitches that have come after me aren't worth. Cause we both know there isn't a rap I won't take for you but it had better fucking be worth it! And girls who put bags of shit on my doorstep are definitely not worth it and the other bitch well she's just a pitiful creature that I have other ideas for how to deal with. I'm not going anywhere and I am the one person who can take on the great Alex Vause and win, even if I didn't know all your weak points."_

_"Where did all this perspective come from?"_

_"Twelve hours in the car. Don't tell Cal I drove straight through. I was going to stop overnight in Pennsylvania but ultimately, I decided to take an hour nap, drank way too much cheap coffee and ate too many salty snacks. Oh, and I talked to Larry. He said some things about you and me that I didn't want to admit but I can't deny. He called you my ticket to special. He said you made my life. That I would always have this restlessness inside me."_

_"Yeah, I do love my Bohemian baby."_

_"Awww, look who's getting all soft and melty. We have something worth fighting for, admit it. I'm tired of fighting each other, I want to fight for us. I'm gonna get you out of here."_

_"Plotting your next felony, Pipes? As much as I want to do more than reach my hand over a barrier and hold hands and sneak kisses like a couple of middle schoolers again, please don't," Alex pleaded as she uncrossed her arms and looked at Piper with deep tenderness again._

_"I have an idea. I just need some help to make it happen and when my plan evolves just a little more than I'll tell you everything. Judges and juries decide death sentences, not prison guards. I know I can do a better job of keeping you safe and clean than the prison system has proven itself able to do. I could build an amazing life for myself on my own but I couldn't live knowing you never met your full potential. That you let yourself become convinced everybody abandons you and nobody is strong enough to love you. You are such an amazing woman, and I'm not just talking about all the outside stuff. Diane saw it. I see it. And I'm not going anywhere until you do. I am prepared to do whatever I have to do to support you as your wife. I want a clean slate."_

_"I love you. And I guess if you are willing to drive all night long and follow me hundreds of miles away from everything you know then I owe you a shot."_

_"Don't do it for me. For once do something for you."_

_"I want this. You won't change your mind again?"_

_"No, and you won't try to torpedo our relationship because you think you are somehow going to save me the pain you think is inevitable?"_

_"No. Because I've seen how much that hurts you worse than if I hadn't. I push you away but you are like a boomerang. I don't know why you keep coming back but you do," Alex slid her hand onto the barrier and for the first time let Piper see she was still wearing her ring. Piper beamed at the sight of that shimmering metal on her wife's finger._

_"You're still wearing your ring. You broke up with me but you're still wearing that."_

_"Yeah, I am. I have to confess something?"_

_"Worse than all the other things you've confessed to me over all these years?"_

_ "I don't know. It was pretty bad. I know I wasn't supposed to but there was a raid and they were all on the floor and I read every single one of the things you wrote on those papers. I couldn't take it off after I sat there reading."_

_Piper put her other hand to her mouth, rolled her eyes and let out a hearty chuckle, "Nope, try harder although, at this point, I don't know what that would look like. Guess I'll have to come up with another batch. I have a million reasons why I love you."_

_"I have a million and one."_

_"Whatever helps you sleep at night, baby," Piper replied with a laugh._

_"God, I miss waking up with you in my arms. Do you really think we can ever do that again?"_

_"I don't think, I know. How's Ohio treating you so far, Al?"_

_"Oh, you know I went to the Rock Hall of Fame, rode roller coasters and explored all these quaint little Amish farm towns. Got some amazing vegetables. Made a gorgeous floral arrangement."_

_"Funny, baby. You know what I mean. Are they treating you right? Is my to cut or not to cut list gonna add another name?"_

_"Took them twenty-eight hours to make a trip you made in twelve. The bus stopped at a prison in West Virginia on the way. But this prison is better. There are a few girls from Camp here," Alex neglected to tell her that she had bonded with Boo over their mutual sadness at losing Nicky because she knew Piper was feeling jealous and vengeful right now underneath all the tenderness, "and they think this place is shitty. They don't know how good they have it. There's less contraband and fewer crooked guards," she said in a whisper as she looked around to make sure nobody was watching._

_"Any hot ones I should be worried about?"_

_"Not even paying attention. You?"_

_"Were you listening to a word I just said? I'm the deadly combo of the three B's—blonde, blue-eyed and bisexual. I can get any girl or guy I want. So yes, this world is full of eye candy and lust is a natural human emotion but making love with your soulmate is so much better than anything else, although I do find a good vibrator can come close in a pinch."_

_"Yes, and everything's a dildo if you're brave enough."_

_"God, I miss getting fucked properly. It's been so long; I don't think my pussy would know what to do if you came at it from behind wielding a huge dildo."_

_"God, that image alone will get me through the next few weeks cause I think I still know what to do in such a circumstance. It'll probably be like the first time all over again. I'd love to give that pussy the good, rough fucking it deserves. I want to pull those hips into my pelvis and make you do all the work as you scream my name and I pound you so deeply that you lose all control."_

_"I'm so wet and you are so evil," Piper declared a little louder than she should have moments before a CO announced that visiting hours were over. He permitted the two to hug goodbye after a little bit of begging from both women and they embraced tightly._

_"I love you, baby. Can I call you later," Alex asked as she gripped Piper tightly and tried to hide the burning behind her glasses._

_"You had better. You need anything?"_

_"Babe, get yourself out of the hotel. I have the basics."_

_"If that changes, let me know. Can I at least fill your phone time and maybe send you a book?"_

_"You can always add to my phone time. Means I get to talk to you more. Generational family saga?"_

_"Consider it done. Stay safe and remember you are Alex fucking Vause. You are fucking badass. You aren't just a queen, you are my queen."_

_"And you are my crown princess. Remember you are pretty awesome too."_

_"Oh, believe me, I already know."_

_"Who's the cocky asshole now?"_

_"Huh, wonder who could have helped that aspect of my personality shine through?"_

_"Stop."_

_"Or?"_

_"You know or," Alex commanded as Piper bit her lip, "You are rotten to the core, kid. Keep it up, consider it your personal savings account for when I get out and can give you what you and that naughty thing between your legs deserve. Come see me when you can."_

_"Let me know when I can, okay? It might be a while since I'm in training and you're still being processed."_

_"Write me letters?"_

_"You and your reading. I kid, you know I'll write you every day."_


	8. Your Happy Ending

**A/N: We are so close to the ultimate moment we have been looking forward to...Alex is free but the two still have one more chapter until we can officially call them reunited. I gave you guys treats again cause you all are amazing...the love I've gotten from this story has been amazing, especially those who have called me an amazing writer (PiperVause I'm looking at you and your analysis...maybe I'll give you a treat in the sequel and have what you suggested happen because I agree, something about Zelda's lifestyle is a little too ritzy even for a high profile fundraiser...a tiny preview of what happens in the next story (blink and you'll miss it) and a little bit of jealous Piper (and if you didn't get enough jealous Piper from this chapter than go read the latest installment of Stuck on You...jealous Piper gets put in her place by the vampy seductress herself.)...changed some chapters around, realized I forgot to put their names up and forgot to add a chapter before this one that I swore I added**

Piper looked over and saw a text message from the one person who had been a linchpin in her case, Poussey's dad. As she looked at the glowing screen, she thought back to the early days of when she started putting her class action suit together. Her first call had been to Alex's aunt, who wasn't completely surprised to hear from her and agreed to represent Alex's interests for Piper as her legal next of kin since as an incarcerated person she couldn't join the suit on her own. But she represented her in name only and allowed Piper free rein to make any decisions she felt were warranted where her fiancé was concerned.

Piper got Lambda Legal, NCLR, Women Prisoners Association, ACLU of Ohio and the Transgender Law Center on board. She flew to San Francisco for a month, it was hard to go that long without seeing Alex but every time they talked the older woman reminded her that where she was and what she was doing was more important. But she got media training from NCLR and made connections that turned the interesting little case and the doggedly determined woman who was its mastermind into a high-profile case with Supreme Court potential and a list of lawyers and the alphabet soup of acronyms that they represented who were more intimidating than anything the Attorney General or Justice Department had in their arsenal.

Piper did interviews as the lead plaintiff in the case, she made it clear her and Alex's story wasn't even the most important story and she never gave many details about their past. She acted as a spokeswoman for this larger group, her girl next door looks, social status, education, and bisexuality could get her into doors others never could. She managed to get fifty codefendants willing to be named, not including Alex and herself, and even more willing to submit anonymous briefs. Sophia at first wanted to do nothing to help but ultimately, she helped her convince two reluctant formerly incarcerated transgender inmates with extremely powerful stories to become named plaintiffs.

But she still felt it wasn't enough. The lawyers hadn't been inmates so they could afford to have a sense of naïve optimism she could no longer carry. The government wouldn't listen to the group they had put together and many in mainstream society said they got what they deserved for living a doubly immoral lifestyle. After an especially difficult interview, she knew that maybe the government wouldn't acknowledge a bunch of queers who admittedly committed crimes against the federal government but they just might listen to a man who served them honorably for decades. She had a potential ace in the hole in a man both the government and Christian conservatives in flyover red states would respect and feel sympathetic towards, Poussey's father, a military man who lost a queer child to the system's incompetence. After Piper and General Washington did an interview together on MSNBC, the Federal Prison system got scared and made sure PolyCon felt the heat they were feeling until they caved and, now, she was about to leave to pick her fiancé up from prison. No matter what she had to deal with as far as Alex's mental and physical health she knew it still beat the alternative of a lifetime of visiting Alex's grave and never officially being her wife.

Piper turned her attention to her phone instead of her hurry to bring Alex home, the woman was safe so why not take a moment to text the man who had become someone special to her over the past few months. She had texted him periodically over the past nine months about updates to the case and he always asked how Alex was. When she found out Alex was getting out in just one sleep, she texted everybody who mattered to her.

As always it was radio silence from her family, even her brother. The last she'd heard from them was a Merry Christmas text two months earlier that was literally just those two words but not a real attempt at actual communication.

Her new best friend, Mia, a bisexual lawyer she had met at the yoga studio had thus far been the only person to respond to her excitement. The only person who tried to understand when she texted her that she could finally sleep now but didn't want to. But here was somebody else who understood what this moment meant and he was happy she had gotten something he never would.

**James: Just got your message. I'm so happy for you both. It's bittersweet but I'm glad you get your happy ending. I hope you will never forget what my daughter meant to you both. Don't give up the fight, just find another way. I know if anyone other than my daughter can it's you. You are going to do something amazing in this world. You have the passion and drive that I used to look for when I was tasked with identifying the most promising young soldiers.**

**Piper: Thank you, sir. You don't know how much it meant to hear from you. And to know some parents care and accept their children. I won't ever forget you or your daughter.**

**James: Just because the case is over doesn't mean we can't talk anymore. I still have the desire to parent. I will never understand parents who reject their children for any reason. If my daughter taught me anything it's to love everybody. I may not be the quickest with all this tech stuff but I'm here if you ever need anything.**

**Piper: Thanks, sir.**

**James: Piper, you know you can just call me James.**

**Piper: Okay, James. I'll talk to you soon. Gotta go pick up Alex.**

**James: Hope you enjoy every minute of your reunion…stay safe**

As Piper put her phone in her purse, she thought back to her first conversation with General James Washington a little over a month after her first visit with Alex to the Ohio prison.

_"Hello, Sir. Sorry I missed your call. I was in visiting my wife."_

_"How is she?"_

_"She's doing better. She just started certificates in Quickbooks and office skills through the community college's prisoner education program. They have all these programs that Litchfield didn't and she's in there with some of the girls from Camp."_

_"That's good. I got your message. Nothing PolyCon can do could ever make up for taking my only child from me. A man should never outlive both his wife and child."_

_"I know and I feel nothing but the deepest empathy for you and what you must be going through. I'm not a parent and I'm not going to try to act like what I'm going through is anything close to what you must go through just to wake up in the morning. But I was there and I remember how I felt at that moment, knowing what was going to happen but powerless to do anything. Before that moment I knew people that died, even ones who were killed but never saw it. And you can never be the same person again after you see that. Nothing can bring her back just like no dollar amount could ever heal my wife's physical and psychological wounds. This isn't about money or even really vengeance because that didn't work. Alex was right when she said it was a bad idea. That's one of the two things I wish I had done differently when I was in there. I didn't know which side I wanted to be on but now I am a fortress on her side. I just want to get her home before she's the next one to die like your daughter did. And maybe create some lasting change in the process. I'll understand if you don't want to get involved because, honestly, I don't want this fight either but I'm not ready to be a widow. And those are my choices. Alex will not survive three years and some change minimum in there. I can't let her be next. I've talked to queer inmates, to queer partners who have lost an incarcerated person. We need to do something about mental health, not just prisoners but making sure the guards are mentally stable and adequately trained both in general and how to deal with queer inmates' needs. Nobody should be in solitary confinement because they are queer or trans and the system prefers to punish them than the homophobes on both sides of the bars. I went to solitary for dancing with my fiancé because two people had it out for us, one on each side of the bars and both determined to make our lives hell. But my story is tame, comparatively."_

_"I would do anything to make sure nobody knows anything like my pain. Are you able to come to meet me or should I come to you? You're in Ohio, correct?"_

_"Yeah, I am. I'm in school and need every shift I can get to support myself and my wife. I've already taken off a lot of time for this case and I can't take any more. And leaving over my day off means my wife is forced to spend a week without an escape from prison bars. What I'm trying to say is that if you could come here, that would be great. I really would like to talk more about the case. I have a lot of big guns in my arsenal but I could use someone the government can't ignore."_

_"I'm not saying yes but I'm not saying no."_

_"I can accept that. Let me know when works for you. Thank you for talking to me today. I want to honor your daughter's memory just as much as I want my wife home."_

_"Just be honorable. Talk to you soon."_

_Piper hung up the phone and started the car. As she watched the prison get small in her rearview mirror, she felt something that she barely recognized because it had been so long since she had felt it—hope._

Seven months after that conversation between Piper and James here the two women were, standing on either side of a heavy steel door waiting for it to buzz.

Piper came every week she could and they talked a couple of times a week. They had laughed and cried together. Turned a listening ear through the moments of fear, anger, and doubt. They flourished both as individuals and a couple. They learned to embrace their insane, powerful connection in all its beauty and pain. They snuck quick kisses and occasional dirty texts or pictures from Boo or Yoga Jones' cell phones when they could.

Piper didn't like the idea that Boo could access nude pictures of Alex if she wanted and Piper had many times made sure Alex knew about it. Then she'd get a picture of Alex's tits from Boo's phone at the perfect moment and she would forget for a moment how jealous she was and if she couldn't then she took the hatred and anger and fucked herself the way she wanted to do to Alex. With the force that Alex deserved. She was certain that somewhere on Boo's phone there were pictures of her aroused pussy because that was the one picture only the older butch would allow Alex to receive. And Piper knew Boo well enough to know she did nothing out of the goodness of her heart. She didn't accept it and thinking about it made her mad as hell.

Normal people would say that was the last thing she should be thinking about. Of course, she and Alex weren't normal people and her unrelenting anger and jealousy at another woman seeing her and her wife's sexts was exactly what she should be thinking about as she waited on the other side of the door for Alex to join her on the blonde's side of the bars and the rest of her life to start. She could see her whole life laid out before her clearly and for the first time, the thought of it didn't scare her. She saw three women with dirty blonde hair around Alex's age coming to visit them as they sat on a porch swing. No amount of black hair dye, badass strength, and inhumanly good skin could conceal the ravages of time on her body or reveal her as anything but a stubborn old lady hanging onto her life with whatever strength she had left. Seven little kids ran ahead, a mix of little blondes and brunettes, four girls and three boys, who always begged their grandmothers to tell them a story before jumping into the pool until supper. And Piper wanted that dream to become reality so badly. The dream felt more real than anything she had ever felt before and she was certain that it was, in fact, a premonition rather than a fantasy.

Before long the door made a loud noise and for the first time, Alex was led to see her without handcuffs on her wrists or a guard holding her bad arm too hard. As the guard supervising them stood back their eyes met but both women were frozen in place. They knew what they wanted to do. They just couldn't believe that they could actually do it. And if they somehow did convince themselves they could do whatever they could dream than neither one could decide what they wanted to do first, they felt like children looking at a menu with too many options and they wanted every single one.

"Enjoy your freedom, Vause," a guard said to assure them that they could, in fact, do whatever they wanted within reason. Alex smiled and took her first step out the door and towards her beloved Pipes.


	9. Stay

**A/N: My version of the missing scene we actually asked for and wanted instead of the rewritten history waste of a Vauseman bar scene we got in season seven. This chapter is rated M and NSFW but Vauseman are finally in each other's loving arms again and now the fun can commence.**

Alex watched as Piper jumped and squealed with glee as she took her first tentative steps towards the blonde. As much as she didn't want to be, the things she had gone through with abusive guards over the past few years had broken her. But here was the one woman who soothed her battered soul. She didn't know what to do, there was so much she wanted. She had a passing thought of slamming her against the wall and sticking her hand up the blonde's dress as those strong thighs opened for her. As she allowed her to cup her soft center but Alex had already had her fill of cheapening her bond with Piper with dirty prison fucks.

She wanted to get her home and make love to her the way she deserved. Of course, Piper would never go for that option either. She was kinkier than she'd ever let on, she liked it hard and rough. Alex knew she'd end up with Piper on her knees or tied to the bed screaming for more before sundown no matter what she did.

"Alex! Get your pretty little ass over here right now and kiss me!"

There was the Piper she loved, beautiful and sweet looking but mouthy and strong-willed as hell. She reminded her of a wild mustang traipsing across the prairie with her beauty, strength and free running nature.

"Mmmm or what," Alex teased as she tried to maintain something resembling control over the blonde.

"You don't want to find out," Piper answered with darkened, lust-filled eyes and passion nearly shooting from her fingertips.

Alex knew she was seconds from being the one slammed against a wall and having a hand between her legs or knowing Piper, a mouth. Her wife was one of those rare creatures who enjoyed giving oral as much as she did getting it and she was damn good at it. Alex didn't let very many girls go down on her because most sucked at it and were completely intolerable in comparison to her own pussy eating skills. She could never forget the first time and definitely not the second time she asked to go down on her. She had really liked Piper and she couldn't say no, she still couldn't and at this point wasn't likely to learn, so she let her.

_Just as their bathroom make-out session was heating up and Piper was starting to pull Alex's pants down as her hand attempted to rub her center when the brunette stopped her and a confused young Piper looked up at her with bubbling rage and youthful lust._

_"I thought you wanted this."_

_"I do, babe, but not here. I've had plenty of hookups in bar bathrooms but that is not a club I want you to join. Come home with me."_

_"And get slapped again? No thanks."_

_"She won't be a problem."_

_"You're lucky I really want to taste you more than I've ever wanted to taste anything in my life."_

_"Oh, I want you to do that more than you know," Alex buttoned her pants and tugged Piper by the hand until they were outside of the bar as her friends hooted and hollered at the sight of the lioness with her latest conquest. What they didn't know was she was the one about to be conquered and she was looking forward to every moment of it. Alex called them a cab and they made out on the street, tongues twisting and Alex allowing Piper to covertly dominate her. _

_Once they got to Alex's apartment, the older woman's shirt barely made it to the floor on the other side of the doorway and her pants didn't make it much further. Somewhere along the way, Piper's clothes, their bras, and Alex's underwear also ended up on the floor. Piper's hand cupped Alex's wet, hot center and the older brunette guided the young blonde's fingers to her tender, arousal swollen nub and showed her inexperienced lover the rhythm she was craving. Alex moaned and her abs tensed as Piper took over until she started feeling something she had never felt before, the inability to stand during sex. She had never before let a woman eat her out while she was on her back but something about Piper was just too intense for any other position._

_"Pipes, I hate to stop you again but I must have had too much to drink tonight, I can't stand up. Take me to my bed."_

_"And have my way with you," Piper teased as her nails dug into the soft flesh of Alex's abdomen and the woman shot her that look that had a cool heat only Alex Vause was capable of and only when she was looking at her Piper. The look that would come to be known as the 'what am I gonna do with you, kid' look. Alex's brain and body were screaming yes but she wasn't willing to let her mouth follow suit as she nearly asphyxiated herself trying to hold back her moans from what the girl was doing to her._

_Alex caught Piper's bottom lip in her mouth and bit down hard, which only turned her on more. The blonde was easily able to overpower her body as she became consumed by Piper's desire and her arousal bubbling just underneath the surface. The younger woman pushed her into the bedroom and her body hit the bed hard. Piper's tongue quickly started dragging down her body, taking special care around her substantial cleavage as her hand kept a rhythm going on her impossibly swollen clit. The way Piper was unfolding her body made it easy to forget the young woman had never done this before. Lucky for them both too because Alex was in no condition to act as a coach to her new young lover. _

_Just as she was becoming lost in her thoughts the blonde grabbed her aroused nipple in her mouth with her teeth and pulled hard, which brought her back to her physical body and the sensations it gave her. Sensations that made her bite her lip and arch her back as she felt every hair on her body stand up on its end. Her body broke out in beads of sweat as unfamiliar moisture fell from her eyes. Her hands searched for anything real to grasp onto. Alex Vause did not cry nor did she turn into a trembling submissive little bottom bitch during sex but here she was doing just that and she had no way of stopping or even concealing it from her lover. Alex's want was turning into a throbbing need that she had never felt before. She knew there was no turning back. She had suspected since the night they met that this girl was everything she never knew she wanted and the things she was feeling as she surrendered to her desire for this girl confirmed her theory in the most pleasurable way._

_A surge of arousal and pain coursed through her body as Piper's hand went from her clit to digging into her ribs as she rubbed her sex against Alex's throbbing cunt. She needed Piper inside her more than she had ever needed anything in her life so she used what strength she had to drag that hand down and maneuver two fingers inside her. Piper quickly started thrusting hard and deep as her hips opened as wide as possible to receive her. Piper slipped a third finger inside her without warning and Alex yelped like a wounded animal as her body adjusted to the surprising yet welcome intrusion. Piper feared that she had hurt Alex or done something wrong so she started to slide her fingers out but Alex dug her nails into Piper's wrist._

_"Am I, is it?"_

_"You have your fingers deep inside my soaking wet vagina, you tell me."_

_"I should have asked but I had a feeling," Piper's face became flushed as she continued stammering and struggling for her words._

_"Could you be any more adorable?"_

_"Is that a bad thing?"_

_"God, babe! Just quit talking and do whatever you want to my body. I like you. Like a lot. Like if I'm not careful I could fall for you. If I don't want something, believe me, baby, you'll know. And if I do like something you'll really know. Do you know what it takes to make me moan? How hard that is?"_

_Piper just looked up at her with bright blue eyes and bit her lip as she tried to figure out how to respond. Alex couldn't hold back her moan at how adorable yet sexy her new young lover was with her hair messy and a look that was at once both seductive and innocent._

_"Evidently it's pretty damn easy."_

_Alex stared her down commandingly and then shook her head and laughed, "Only for you, babe. I'm gonna have my hands full with you, aren't I?"_

_"Among other things," she teased as she twisted her fingers inside the older woman until her most sensitive nerve endings and muscles were stretched to their maximum capacity then started offering her needy cunt sharp, shallow thrusts that were somehow perfectly attuned to Alex's body and its needs as her walls tensed hard around the girl's fingers._

_"You have some mouth on you, kid," Alex declared through breathy pants as her full breasts heaved wildly, drawing Piper in even more and making her even more gutsy and flirtatious as she looked up from where she was sitting on Alex's alabaster thighs._

_"So I've been told. Is that a pet name I just heard?"_

_"You tell me, kid," Alex asked as Piper's eyes made her somehow both melt and burn simultaneously, "What am I going to do with that mouth, Pipes?"_

_"Well if you don't know then how do you expect me to," Piper teased as she pulled her fingers out of the woman's center and sucked them dry as Alex watched. The older woman reached out to rub her young lover's clit as Piper started gyrating her hips against Alex's mound for some much-needed friction. She tried to focus her attention on the blonde's hard modest breasts instead of the smoldering heat between her legs until she couldn't take the show before her another moment longer._

_"Not another word from you, kid. Time to put that sexy mouth to good use," Alex pulled Piper on top of her and kissed her roughly until her mouth began to open enough for her to force her tongue as deep inside her mouth as she could get it. Alex went back to alternating between rubbing Piper's clit and cupping her mound hard while Piper worked her way back inside the brunette's tight center until she was inside her once again._

_Piper kept thrusting hard, deeper and with more force now until she hit something spongy deep inside Alex and when she did the woman broke contact with her lips then wailed like a horny alley cat so she rubbed it again, this time on purpose as Alex's lips began to quiver. Alex knew one more targeted thrust on that spot would make her orgasm hard and as much as she wouldn't mind cumming all over those perfect fingers Piper had been quite explicit back at the bar about what she wanted to do. And Alex wanted it too. But she also knew the untrained girl on top of her had no idea what response she was dangerously close to eliciting from her so she took control of Piper's hand and slowly pulled her drenched fingers out of her._

_"I want to cum all over your sexy mouth, babe. I want you to swallow every last drop of what you are about to make me do."_

_"I don't know what to do."_

_"Lick my clit, push my lips apart with one hand and play with my tit with the other while you lick my slit and when you feel me start to get really wet or I start grabbing your hair hard stick your tongue inside me. That's the basic idea, the rest is up to you."_

_Piper took a deep breath and started kissing and nibbling the skin just below Alex's navel as one hand massaged one of Alex's breasts and the other dug into the soft flesh of Alex's thigh. Piper's mouth found Alex's wet center, already swollen and so open for her. Piper couldn't believe the sight before her._

_"I didn't bring you into my bed to look at my golden pussy all night!"_

_"It's just so uhm."_

_"Yeah, and you did all of it, baby. Now enjoy your reward and make me cum."_

_Piper didn't have to do much to unfold her lips as her instincts took over. Soon, her tongue was thrusting as deep as she could as Alex's walls clamped hard around her, Piper pushed against her muscles contracting as she tried to swallow every bit of what Alex had to give her until she had no more left to give. Piper cleaned Alex's center as the older woman rode out a second, even more intense orgasm with her tongue on her clit then she worked her way up the brunette's hot, sweaty skin until she got to her mouth, where they made out while Alex rewarded her with an orgasm of her own from her hand lovingly grazing her center and fingers tugging on her tender nub as she breathed heavily into her mouth._

_ After Piper came down from orgasms one, two and three and Piper gave Alex one more, Piper collapsed from exertion on top of Alex. She rested her head on Alex's breast and threw her arms lazily around her ribcage as the older woman held her tight and buried her face in her flowing blonde locks, breathing in the intoxicatingly sweet scent of her shampoo. They laid there with their bodies intertwined for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes._

_"I should go. I'm getting too comfy."_

_"You don't have to."_

_"Will you make me breakfast?"_

_"You'll be breakfast if you stay the night," Alex replied as she tried to hide the shakiness of her voice and hold back the words on the tip of her tongue, 'I'll cry myself to sleep if you don't,' she thought as she looked into Piper's big blue eyes, full of doe-eyed softness and syrupy sweetness._

_"Mmmm…I really like that idea."_

_"I'm thinking we'll have each other as an appetizer, then I'll make us French toast and Mimosas with a scramble from whatever I have in the fridge and some fresh fruit and I think I have whipping cream."_

_Piper's head perked up at the mention of whipped cream, which made Alex roll her eyes and sigh then arch her eyebrow._

_"Yeah, you aren't kinky."_

_"Okay, maybe I'm a little kinky. I have these fantasies I knew I wasn't supposed to have so I never gave them the space to exist."_

_"Yeah, you probably shouldn't be naked in bed in the arms of a twenty-seven-year-old lesbian who imports heroin and recruits mules for a drug cartel fresh out of college but here you are."_

_"Yeah and I've never felt anything that was more right."_

_"So, you gonna sleep with me tonight?"_

_"Just one question."_

_"You want a shirt?"_

_"Why waste time in the morning? No, and I don't want you to put one on either. The only things that get to cover those hot tits tonight are my body and hair. Can we spoon?"_

_"Uh, yeah babe. That was sorta the idea. Maybe guys are different but when a chick who is sexually attracted you asks for a sleepover, she's actually asking for an extended naked cuddle session. Stay. Be my little spoon."_

_"You have a deal, Al," she answered as the older woman shifted her off her body. Then the two delicately maneuvered their bodies without a word so their bodies were snuggled close, with Alex's head resting on her shoulder. The brunette kissed her gently and massaged her breast gently as the blonde surrendered to sleep with Alex not far behind her._

"Why don't you put that cocky mouth to good use."

"You first."

"Come closer, my dear."

At this point, they were completely unsupervised by the guards who were powerless to stop whatever was about to happen. Alex slowly meandered over to Piper and whispered in her ear, "what do you say we get out of here so I can fuck you how you deserve to be fucked. I'm gonna make you scream until you can't scream anymore. I'm gonna show you how much I cherish every bit of you."

"Mmm…I say hell fuck yes. It'll be so nice to actually both get naked and take our time together."

"Just nice?"

"You know what I mean, baby. Remind me who owns this pussy and that nobody and nothing can pleasure it better than you, including myself."

"And you know what I mean," Alex teased as she kissed Piper and grazed her hand along the swell of her breasts underneath her dress, which sent a noticeable surge of arousal through her body, "This is gonna be so easy and I'm starving. For you."

"Ditto," Piper answered as she pulled away from Alex's loving embrace and led her to her car.


	10. The Sweetest Thing I'll Ever Know

**A/N: Because I don't want to keep you guys in suspense here's a double update, Enjoy. Vauseman are finally alone in a place with a bed and no guards and we all know what happens when these two are left unattended.**

Piper drove across town as fast as she could, luckily it was late morning so the downtown streets and highway were empty, while Alex tried to sneak her hand under Piper's dress. By some miracle, they arrived at Piper's apartment in one piece and without ripping each other's underwear off and fucking on the side of the road. Piper unlocked the door to her apartment and gave her fiancé a moment to get comfortable in the new space. Alex looked around the small studio, her eyes fell on a gorgeous white and black Soji screen with cherry blossoms that hid the bed from the rest of the small open living space while still creating a passage to the bathroom.

"It's not much but it was the best I could get."

Alex walked back to the entryway where Piper was standing beside Alex's small bag of stuff that she had taken with her from prison and wrapped her arms around the blonde, "It's more than enough for me. I love it, babe. I wouldn't mind buying a huge house in a small, quaint New England town, maybe we could live Upstate but without the prison bars this time. What I saw of it up there was gorgeous. Babe, what you've done with this space is amazing. You are the sweetest thing I'll ever know," she whispered in a low, sultry tone as she tenderly kissed Piper's lips, holding back the blonde's attempts to turn the kiss into something lustier and hotter, "I need a shower and to burn these scratchy clothes. If I never wear a white bra again it'll be too soon."

"How about you just never wear a bra again," Piper asked, purposely avoiding the bigger statement Alex had just made and questioning her as to why they would possibly need a big house. She didn't need to have that discussion right now nor did she want to so she decided to focus on rebuilding their sexual connection. Piper knew that was more important right now but she also knew Alex had other ideas that she wasn't bringing up. This was her life, for better or worse, and she would do anything if it meant keeping her one true love in her arms.

"As much as you might enjoy that, I wouldn't. I know it's been a while but do you remember what these girls look like? They need a lot of support or it makes everything sore in the worst way. You, however, don't ever need a bra. Yet, anyway."

"Well, then why am I still wearing one?"

"Good question, Pipes. What do you say we solve both of our problems," she tugged on the sash of Piper's dress and ripped her dress apart as a couple buttons flew onto the floor, "That what you were trying to make me do?"

"Since I saw this dress on the hanger."

"That's my girl," Alex released Piper and took in the skimpy lace that concealed nothing, "Well, look who got waxed like a good little lover. So conscientious of your dom's likes and dislikes."

Piper knew Alex was fishing for an ego boost and she knew exactly how her compliance would be rewarded so she teased in the sexiest tone she could manage with her soft blue doe eyes, "I love when you talk nerdy to me."

"Which one do you love more, my big words or my big tits?"

"Tits. Always tits. I'm still the same shallow girl. Except now I'm all for you. I forgot how much it hurt because I haven't done it in so long."

"Well now, I'll just have to kiss it and make it feel better, won't I?"

That taunt won Alex a tug on the waistband of her jeans and fingers expertly popping the button as the blonde's hand moved down her cotton prison granny panties, "These are killing my libido."

"Mine isn't going to look quite as nice as yours. I have a seventies porno-style full bush thing going on. I don't even want to touch my pussy but a certain blonde has a way of always turning me on. You sure you want all of this?"

"I don't care what I have to do or what it looks like or if I get a mouthful of sticky pubic hair, I'm so going down on you, like as soon as possible. But tomorrow we are going shopping for a weed whacker, like as soon as we're dressed and caffeinated. I don't care about stretch marks and cellulite. I want to grow old with you and I still think you are just as gorgeous as ever. I'm going to kiss every inch of you and then I'm going to stick my tongue inside those few places that are too deep to kiss."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. And I'm not going to stop making love to you until you love your body as much as I do."

"I love you, Pipes. What would I do without you?"

"I don't want to think about it. As much as you hate it, everybody knows you need me more than I could ever need you."

"I hate that you are my one weakness."

"Everybody's gotta have at least one and it might as well be your wife," Piper answered reassuringly as the woman pulled her in closer with a mixture of tenderness and raw desire unique to their insane connection.

"Leave the sexy lingerie on," Alex barely got out before Piper's fingers pressed against her clit through her underwear and her legs turned to jelly, "Nobody makes me weak in the knees like you."

"Remember that next time you get an idiotic idea that even at your worst, you aren't enough and try to get rid of me."

"I'm sensing I'm about to be punished for the location of this reunion."

"No, just a little reminder of the things only I know how to do to you. Every last one. I'm not in the mood for punishment tonight, it's water under the bridge at this point. Everything about the past is just that now and it's not a place I ever want to revisit. I just want to make love to the woman I love. The person I chose to marry," Piper told her as she closed the space between them and led her to bed.

Piper gently stripped her clothes off before running her fingers through her folds just as tenderly until she slowly helped the older woman lie down on her back and the two became a jumble of intertwined legs. Alex completely forgot about any other need she ever had as she gave in to the force of the naked body pressing against hers. Piper hungrily kissed her lips as her fingers kept a constant rhythm along Alex's slit, never quite entering her until the moment she asked her to. When she could tell Piper was on the edge, Alex cupped Piper's mound then gently entered her fiancé until they came hard around each other's fingers. With their first post-prison orgasm out of the way, Piper could fully concentrate on what she wanted to do more than anything. She started a slow, lingering journey down Alex's body with her mouth.

She took a left turn when she got to her mound and kissed down her leg and up the other as her hands toyed with the tuft of rough dark curls between her thighs. Eventually, she made her way through the brambles and was rewarded with Alex's glistening, swollen scarlet red lips wet, open and waiting to be pleasured by her. She pressed her chin against Alex's mound and looked up one last time before indulging in her aroused cunt to make sure the older woman was ready and not only wanted this but wanted it this way.

The brunette curled her fingers into Piper's hair before pushing her face between her legs. Piper stayed there as Alex fucked her face until she ran out of strength and the blonde took over the lead for two more rounds until she was spent and collapsed onto Alex's abdomen with one hand still clutching her left breast as she fell asleep on top of her. Alex laid there watching her sleep and rubbing her back gently. She was the luckiest woman alive.


	11. The Wedding Night We Never Got to Have

**A/N: We've arrived at the penultimate chapter of this story but there's still a lot left to tell. Domestic Vauseman at it's finest coming soon and a crazy twist because that's my thing and these two can never be ordinary, even by lesbian standards. I hope you'll stick with me for part two to be called "Say You Won't Let Go," after the James Arthur song because I've always thought that song reflected what I imagined Alex feels about Piper in the deepest reaches of her heart. The first chapter is ready to go so I could be convinced to publish the final chapter of this one and first of the next if you guys want.**

Two hours later Alex was naked in the kitchen going through the cupboards trying to find something to cook for her fiancé who was wrapped under a purple comforter with a cup of Earl Grey tea and honey that she had brought the blonde without being asked.

"Finding anything?"

"Not much but I've worked with way less."

"You can use my phone and order GrubHub, you can order from wherever you want. C'mon it's your first post-prison meal."

"I've already had my first post-prison meal and I got exactly what I wanted. Do I need to come over there and remind you?"

"Busy drinking my tea, right now. I don't want it to get cold, baby."

"Oh, you. Once again proving there is no privilege you won't squander. I'm cooking for my woman to show my gratitude for all she's done to make us a home," she commanded as she went back to searching the cupboards, only now she was singing Shaggy's "Angel" loudly and humming along to the melody as I shouted back the harmony vocals, "Let's see what I can do with penne, a can of peas, alfredo sauce, romaine hearts and a loaf of wheat bread. Hopefully, you have some spices."

"I think I have some parmesan in the fridge and I should have canned diced tomatoes somewhere. I think I have oregano, garlic powder, and chili flakes. You know you really shouldn't cook naked."

"What making you too famished?"

"It's just unsanitary."

"Yeah since when do you care about that? Somebody forget her favorite room to fuck? My fellow dishwasher gal. Or have your tastes really changed that much?"

"You know I hate you sometimes," Piper sighed and then added, "I guess a show before dinner wouldn't be so bad. Nothing quite like a hot woman who wants to fill my belly and my pussy and is equally good at both. But I think I'm going to have to buy you an apron."

"Well, you can still check out my ass and it'll protect the goodies so go ahead but I get to pick it. You don't know how badly I want to do those things, except you are looking a little too skinny for what I have planned for that body."

"Care to let me in on your plans, baby?"

"In time but tonight is just about getting reacquainted and finally getting to be a boring married couple."

"I like that idea. And it's been so long since I've had your amazing cooking," Piper watched as Alex started to sway her hips to the playlist from her not-birthday-present playlist as Piper looked on with her eyes glued to the brunette's ass and the curve of her breasts. Piper was tempted to turn the version of the playlist from her Spotify on but she had heard them enough and was enjoying finally hearing Alex's rendition of all their favorite songs while she laid in bed, it was just like the old days but better because they were truly free for the first time in all their years together.

Half an hour later Alex walked over to their bed with two plates of pasta with Caesar salad and her best attempt at cheesy garlic bread.

"I'm so glad you are home. And you can cook for me every night. And breakfast on the weekends."

"Subtle babe. But I'm sure I'll be the one doing most of the cooking in this family cause I'm guessing you could still burn water."

"Well, I'm not that bad anymore but I'm nowhere near your natural skills. You are the perfect woman. And an even more perfect wife. Curvy, tall, as amazing the bedroom as the kitchen. God, those full lips and wavy dark hair and what they do to me."

"I know."

Piper laughed and the two started shoving each other as food fell off their plates before quickly becoming forgotten as Alex mounted Piper. Piper's lust darkened blue eyes stared up sweetly at Alex as she held her arms down with fire in her eyes.

"I win," she teased as she pushed her hips into Piper's pelvis, causing the woman to gasp and her center to twinge from raw carnal desire as she pressed hard against her mound.

"Well, a winner deserves a prize. Go in the closet behind my winter coat, there's a bag, open it and put on what you find."

"What did you get me," Alex teased knowing exactly what her wife had bought and how it related to their current position but she knew her fiancé liked to be teased.

"I think you already know."

Alex disappeared into the tiny closet and soon found a smooth purple dildo and black leather harness. She wondered if her wife had other toys lying around in secret spots like this one.

"You find it," the blonde hollered as she looked at Alex standing in the closet with the toy in her hand.

"You mean your new toy, my little squirrel," she asked as she emerged back into the room and stood before Piper. She ran her hand up and down its shaft, which only made the blonde grow needier for it to be inside her.

"I've had nothing but time to fantasize about all the things I wanted to do with you."

"I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing that you are still the same girl that I met all those years ago in so many ways."

"Well, you fell in love with that girl and decided you missed her too much to leave her for very long so you flew her around the world as your lover and companion, so I'm going with mostly good."

"Is he ready to play?"

"You know it. Someone did teach me a thing or two about how to properly use sex toys. Especially caring for dildos."

"So how would you like me to use this?"

"I want you on top of me. My legs wrapped around you as I take every inch of you and you are thrusting hard and rubbing my clit."

"I'm gonna fill your tight little pussy until you can't take any more. You think I've made you scream before."

"Come here," she commanded with her best attempt at channeling her wife's seductive expression and tone.

"You are freakishly good at that."

"I should be. I'm your wife. You should do your best Piper impression sometime."

"I can't quite channel your sweet innocence and the things you know how to do with those eyes. I don't think anyone else in the world can do the things you do," Alex teased as she walked back over to the bed, "Tighten this for me. I want to feel it against my cunt when I fuck your brains out."

Piper grabbed the buckles and tightened the harness around Alex's hips, "It fits perfectly."

"Worried it wouldn't?"

"Yeah. It's been so long since I got to touch you and even when I did I couldn't, you know, really touch you."

"Are you sure you don't want to lead? Then you can touch me however you want," Alex sat next to Piper and started pulling her towards her lap, "But it's your fantasy so really it's your call."

"It would be kind of hot to ride you. And when I'm done, I would sit on your face and then make you clean me up or get suffocated to death by a wet pussy. I mean if the immortal vamp herself were to die that's probably the way she'd go. But it's your choice, Vause. Either way, I get to cum around a cock tonight with your perfect, sexy tits in my face so I don't care one bit."

"You are a dangerous woman," Alex teased with a facial expression that would make a lesser woman than Piper completely combust.

"Takes one to know one," Piper challenged with a smoldering expression of her own.

"At my worst, I'm nowhere near you."

"That's our little secret," Piper teased as she straddled Alex's lap and kissed her deeply as she felt a surge of arousal the second that she felt the shaft against her slick center. Eventually, the shaft rubbed against her clit just right and she had to have Alex inside her as soon as possible.

"I need you," Piper barely got out through ragged, deep breaths. Alex wrapped her arm around Piper's waist as the blonde moved along the shaft with some assistance from the older woman. Alex, ever the protector when it came to Piper, reached her hand down to judge Piper's readiness and was pleasantly surprised by just how much thick arousal quickly pooled between her fingers inside the blonde's warm, fleshy center.

"Somebody's ovulating. Perfect timing."

"If only this thing were real," Piper teased as she looked down at the dildo between Alex's legs and ran her hand along the thick, hard shaft.

"About now I wish it were. I'd so put a baby in you tonight if I could."

"I'd so let you. Then we'd never forget our first night together as a married couple. It's the wedding night we never got to have."

"Well, guess I'll have to fuck you like a virgin bride then. Teach that tight pussy and toned body with its perfect little titties how to take a hard cock and what happens to all that when it does. I might even let you cum if you behave like a dutiful, virtuous wife. You have lube somewhere nearby?"

"Dresser drawer."

Alex reached over and blindly ran her hand through the drawer, grasping at Piper's vibrator in the drawer a little longer than necessary then found a big bottle of silicone toy safe lube in addition to a bottle of regular KY jelly and warming massage oil, "I'll come back for you later," she told the bottle as she placed it on the dresser.

"I hoped you'd find that. I may have bought a candle too."

"You always did love that, you little masochist. Did you come out about being a freak too when you came out as bi?"

"Not yet. Well the UPS guy might have an idea by now. Does that count?"

"Yeah sure. Let your freak flag fly babe. I like my kinky bisexual Bohemian baby just as she is. You are perfect, in case I haven't told you that lately. Let me get this nice and wet for you."

"It shouldn't take much. I'm still so open and ready," Piper began gyrating her hips in Alex's lap, running her lips along the shaft.

"Believe me, babe, you'll need it. And that will only make what I'm about to attempt to do even more likely to occur. God, I love how your ass feels against my thighs. The only thing that I love more is when your thighs clench around me thrusting inside you," Alex teased as she ran her hand along the shaft between her legs and could finally see just how swollen and glistening Piper's pussy was now that she was sitting next to her with her legs open.

"Mmmm, is that all for me?"

"It's all cause of you. You are still the prettiest woman I've ever seen."

"And you are still the sweetest thing I've ever encountered," Alex replied as she softly maneuvered Piper off her lap and onto her back. She laid beside her, pressing the shaft against her mound as the two kissed passionately.

Alex gently lowered herself on top of her wife as she smoothed her hand through Piper's hair and along her sweaty brow before kissing her lips as she rubbed her clit as the vibrator inside her harness sent pulses to her swollen bud. As the vibrator helped Alex's arousal grow and Piper wrapped her legs around the brunette's hips she became more rhythmic with her motions against Piper's mound until the younger woman was practically pulling her as deep as she could go inside her.

Alex pulled the blonde's legs from her hips to her shoulders to deepen her thrusts and enhance the younger woman's pleasure. Their breathing grew heavier as Alex strained to please her wife and find that magical spot. She struggled to find the spot that would allow her wife the kind of contentment only she could offer her. Alex had a look of hurt and frustration on her face as she kept trying to at least give her wife the friction she craved if she couldn't give her the orgasm she deserved.

Piper responded with a soft look that swelled with love and compassion, that reassuring glance that could make anything Alex might ever experience okay. It was the kind of expression that made other parts of Alex swell more than she ever thought possible. The blonde did what she could to help her angle herself inside her and once she found that soft spot on her wall and she remembered exactly what to do as she worked Piper into a strong orgasm from both her clitoris and vagina. Her walls clamped tightly around her, pulling her in as Alex expertly worked her folds until Piper began to show signs of being overstimulated. She whimpered at the loss of contact as Alex pulled out of her and unclasped the harness from her hips. For the first time, Piper could see how aroused everything she had done had gotten her wife and she couldn't help but start to visibly salivate.

"You look thirsty, baby. Should I go get you some water?"

"I don't think that will quench my thirst."

"Tequila?"

"Nope."

"I know what you want," Alex led Piper back to the bed and laid out on her back and opened her legs, "Drink up baby. You aren't the only one who got unbearably wet from our lovemaking."

"You know I can stay down there for hours."

"And? Your point is?"

"Can I pleasure your body first?"

"You can do whatever you want but only with your mouth."

"Is that so?"

Two hours later Piper collapsed on top of Alex's pillowy breasts and fell fast asleep in her wife's arms. The brunette barely managed to reach over the edge of the bed for a comforter without waking her exhausted lover, planting soothing kisses when she stirred in her loving, protective arms. Alex wrapped the heavy, thick blanket around the two of them as she stayed up for another hour secretly taking in the scent of the blonde's skin and hair and listening to her breathe until she couldn't fight her exhaustion any longer and she fell asleep until the morning.


	12. Completely At My Mercy

**A/N: So we've arrived at the end but like most endings, this is only the beginning of a new story. Be sure to read Say You Won't Let Go for more from our favorite couple as they create a new life together.**

The next morning Piper awoke to an empty bed in her dark apartment. She was filled with fear as she became more aware of her surroundings when she heard footsteps and saw a shadowy figure in her kitchen. She began to freak out, moving her legs uncontrollably as her heart raced inside her chest and her breathing grew heavy. Then the figure appeared in the shadow and turned on the standing lamp by her bed.

"Shhh, baby. Hush, my sweetheart. It's okay, my love," the mattress dipped as the dark figure slowly sat on the bed and reached for her cheek.

"Alex?"

"Yeah. I just got up to make some coffee. I'm so used to getting up at five am. I'm sorry I scared you," she took the sobbing blonde in her arms and held her head tightly with one hand and wrapped the other around her ribs.

"I thought it was all a dream. When, when I woke up and didn't see you, I, I thought I imagined it all."

"You didn't dream one bit of it."

"How do I know this isn't just another part of the dream?"

"Ah, there's the ridiculous, adorable girl I'm completely smitten with."

Piper looked up and glared at her angrily and Alex responded by pushing up her glasses and smirking, "sorry, woman," she corrected herself, lingering longer than necessary on the vowels with that cool commanding tone she was famous for, "Should I pinch you and see if you feel it?"

"Depends. On where you pinch."

"Where do you want me to pinch," she teased as her fingers found the more excited of Piper's nipples and tugged hard.

"Guess I'm going to have to get used to being breakfast and bed again," Piper teased as Alex's hands started caressing her breasts between roughly playing with her hard nipples.

"You just might. But I promise to bring you breakfast in bed once in a while this time. I may be the same douchebag asshole and I can't change my genetic programming. I'll always be Lee Burley's daughter, I didn't choose it but can't escape it either. But I chose to be Piper Chapman's partner. I have a better chance of escaping the man who made my existence possible than my love for you. You love me in a way I never thought I would ever deserve. I choose you above all others. I love you and I want to wake up to you every morning. I will bring you coffee and hold you while you slowly wake up. I'm gonna do better."

"I choose you too. So, baby are you hungry?"

"Do you have something for me to eat," Alex teased as she slowly grabbed the hem of Piper's long-sleeved thermal shirt.

"Yes, but you are taking off the wrong article of clothing."

"I am, am I?"

"Yes."

"Are you asking me to?"

"I'm demanding. Just nicely. You have three seconds until I start demanding in a not so nice manner."

"Is that so?"

"Do you want to find out," Piper commanded with darkened eyes full of lust and rage.

"You are so sexy when you're mad. I just want to throw you down and put you in your place."

"Well then less talking, more doing, Vause!"

"Careful what you wish for, Pipes," Alex teased before sitting on her lap and kissing her as she slowly pushed the blonde's body into the bed until she was on top of her with her leg rubbing between the younger woman's strong thighs as her gasps became breathier. Alex ran her hand down Piper's panty-covered mound and felt a wet spot that only became wetter as she worked her way down Piper's abdomen with her mouth. Stopping to give special attention to her navel and run her lips along her tight core.

"If these are this tight then I can only imagine how tight your pussy is. Probably be just enough room for my tongue. Wonder if last night's situation is still going on."

"What, you gonna do something to stop the process?"

"Don't tempt me, you know I always get what I want. And if I want to find a dude to jack off in a cup and then shoot your ripe cunt full of his shit and let nature take its course than it'll happen. Even if I have to put some balls in a vice."

"How about you go back to the drawing board and find a way of knocking me up that doesn't include sexual assault. For once in your life do something purely by legal means. But let me know when you figure it out. You are the craftiest, smartest human I've ever met, you'll think of something and when you do it'll probably be the most creative idea I've ever heard."

"And inevitably you'll go along with it because we have a weakness for following each other down rabbit holes."

"But for now, how about you pleasure my pussy?"

Alex ran her fingers along the crease just above my mound, "You don't have to ask me twice," she teased as she pulled the blonde's panties off and spread her lips open as Piper opened her legs as wide as she could and lifted her knees off the bed as Alex's tongue went to work on her slit until the blonde came undone.

Eventually, Alex collapsed on Piper's chest and laid there in the stillness listening to Piper's heart race. She should be completely satiated but she still felt a knot deep in her soul so she took a deep breath and declared, "I feel so unsatisfied still. I don't know what wrong with me. Nobody can satisfy me like you but I still feel this deep ache."

"Maybe you should consider not always giving in to my fantasies. I mean I have plenty of ideas for things I want to do to you. You are always so concerned with everyone else's pleasure."

"I get pleasure from the giving. From seeing that look of burning desire when a woman looks at me."

"You are a woman. A whole lot of woman. You are just as vulnerable and needy as any other member of our sex. And as a woman, you put your desires aside for the good of those you provide for and your family because that is the downfall of woman. She has desires and opinions but she is taught early on she isn't allowed to voice them. She has to think about her parents and then her spouse before herself. And when she has kids then her needs are really at the end of the line. You are just as much a woman on the inside as you are on the outside and that's what I love most about you."

"And it's what I hate most about myself. I subjected myself to so much abuse for so long and now the stress has finally broken me. And now there's this disconnect between my libido, the desires in my mind and my physiological response."

"Alex, you are not broken. And the worst of it wasn't your doing. Sure, some of it was but most of it wasn't. You are a strong and sensual woman. And I'm not complaining about your physiological responses last night," Piper teased as she gently pressed her lips against Alex's breasts.

"What am I going to do with you?"

"I have ideas but I'd rather hear yours."

"I want you to be so hungry for me that you take me by surprise and remind me why you are my wife."

"You want to be overpowered? Are you trying to walk me to the edge of a death trap? Because I know what happens when I claim my power with you."

"I want a taste of that classic rage. Of that fiery passion you have for me."

"And you'll let me do it?"

"No, but that's part of the challenge and the fun. We both know you are capable of doing it. Of teasing me to the point of submission."

"Now you also want me to force you to be submissive? You really want me to die, don't you?"

"Now why would I want that? Who else is gonna have the perfect combination of personality traits to follow me anywhere, whether I ask them to or not? And you make me laugh through anger and smile through tears?"

"I don't know, baby," Piper replied with a deep, sultry kiss but Alex's brain was elsewhere and contemplating an unexpected thought she'd been having lately that would challenge the roles they had created and expectations society had when it looked at her. Alex had a nagging desire that only grew stronger every day, no matter what she did to try to shove it away or dissolve it. She wanted to know what it would feel like to carry a child. She was convinced it was the only thing that could make her feel less like poison ran through her veins. It went against her need for absolute power and control over her destiny. It was a form of weakness that before she felt the sun on the other side of barbed wire fences three deep that she didn't know she wanted with every fiber of her being. Someday soon, she would tell the woman who could sense her unease and was kissing the top of her head but today was not going to be that day.

"Coffee is getting cold. I made oatmeal too," Alex responded an attempt to avoid going too deep into the thoughts swirling around her brain.

"How did I not notice," Piper asked, giving in to Alex's attempt to change the subject but she could read Alex's expression like a book and knew that there was some serious emotion she was holding back.

"You never change. Normally it takes about five shots of tequila plus as many orgasms to work you into the stupor I got you to last night. You got there sober and from four orgasms, only one of which was a full one. I'm capable of better work and you aren't that easy."

"What can I say, I missed that velvety tongue between my thighs and those hips thrusting against mine."

"How can somebody with such a sweet, innocent face be so naughty and undisciplined?"

"I don't know, maybe we should do a little shopping after breakfast."

"Let me guess, we aren't going to Macy's?"

"No. I was thinking of going to this woman-run, queer-friendly sex store in the artsy gay district. It's where I got that lovely little toy that we enjoyed so much last night."

"Yeah it was a little small, wasn't it? We both know you can handle way more and I didn't love the harness. And I've fantasized constantly about tying you up since Paris. I want you completely at my mercy without the ability to do the one thing you do best, run."

"Guess I'm going to be wearing sweaters for a while."

"Guess you are," Alex responded as she finished putting dried fruit and honey on Piper's oatmeal. She looked over at Piper smiling on the bed but could tell mentioning Paris had struck a nerve, "What's on your mind, babe? I'm sorry I brought up old wounds."

"I'm just scared. I want a life with you so bad but we both tend to run away in opposite directions, we need to be one if this is going to work. Al, promise me you won't let your head get in the way this time. Promise me I won't lose you again."

"You won't. I have a vision for my life that I didn't have then. I was still struggling to live from day to day without ever so much as attempting to imagine the bigger picture. I want my own business and to fall asleep with you in my arms every night."

"And I just want to make sure innocent people don't end up where they don't belong and create the home you need."

"We're gonna have an amazing life together, Pipes."

"I can't wait."

**Fin**


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